


Our Little Sunshine

by gayrosevampire



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Ageplay, Cuddles, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lot of fluff, M/M, Non-Sexual Age Play, Pacifiers, Some angst, Toys, all that little stuff, everyone loves jisung, first little fic, kind of, little han, little han jisung, little jisung, little!han, little!han jisung, little!jisung, littlespace, relationships are complicated but will be explained later, sippy cups
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-08 03:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16421324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayrosevampire/pseuds/gayrosevampire
Summary: Han Jisung discovers he is a little when he is 15 years old during his training. He tells Stray Kids about this after their debut.He never expected the band to accept it so wholeheartedly.





	1. Confession

**Author's Note:**

> my first language is not english and this is unbetad so please be gentle. i'm going to get my english friend to beta it but she's out on a trip and I wanted to post the first chapter to see people's reactions. second chapter will be better x

Jisung wrung his hands together, shifting from side to side as he went over what he planned to say inside his head. He’d sent a message on the group chat earlier telling the rest of the band that he wanted to meet them in the living room to tell them something. He’d gotten a couple of teasing messages, one from Hyunjin and one from Changbin, asking why he seemed so serious. Jisung hadn’t responded, and Chan had seemed to sense there was something odd about the request as he seemed to make extra sure that he told Jisung they would all be there. It made sense. Jisung was never really serious, so sending a message like that and then not responding to the light teasing was definitely odd to say the least. He’s in his bedroom, at some point he’d started walking back and forth, pacing across the room as he goes over and over what he plans to say, but his mind is empty from fear.

 

A message comes through on his phone and he checked it, it’s from Chan, telling him that they’re all in the living room, and he breathes heavily. For a second he considered calling the whole thing off or pretending like it was just a big joke, it would definitely be easier.

 

He opened the door and walked out into the living room, overcome by a rush of fear when everyone turned to look at him, but he pushed it down and walked fully into the room so that he was standing in front of all of them. Everyone is sitting on one of the respective sofas, and the only available seat is the footstool. Jisung stood behind it, as if it’s going to work as a barrier between him and what he’s going to say.

 

“Jisung? What’s going on?” Woojin asked, and Jisung could barely make the words leave his mouth. “I have something very important that I need to tell you all.”

 

There must be something in his tone that alerted the band that he’s being serious, because unlike normal, no one made fun of him, they just sit there waiting for him to continue. Which he doesn’t because the words get stuck in his throat and he can’t make them leave. He’s aware that he’s just standing there, frozen, probably looking like a terrified squirrel, but he can’t make himself talk.

 

“Jisung?” Chan asked, concerned, and Jisung can feel the words leaving his mouth before he realises what he’s saying. “I-I-I-I it’s nothing.”

 

He wants to run away, and he’s not aware he’s walking away until Minho grabs his wrist and stopped him in his tracks.

 

“Jisung, you know you can tell us anything right?” He said gently, and Jisung freezes again, though he does slowly move back to the position he was in before, figiting with his hands as he stood there.

 

The band eventually coax him into having the confidence to start talking, and he does. The words all pouring out of him like some kind of waterfall.

 

“I have... I have a psychological condition, caused from... Some... Some trauma from when I was a child. I wouldn't usually tell anyone, and I haven't yet. But I want you. I want you all to know in case, in case it affects any of you."

 

It’s obvious that the band is very concerned, they asked him what the trauma is, what the condition is. Why hasn't he told them before now? Jisung's embarrassed, and he said so. And also that it's not exactly a common thing

 

"I didn't want anyone to know, since it's so bad, but since we're going to debut soon and going to be together hopefully for a long time. I figured that you should all know."

 

Of course, the rest of Stray Kids reassured him that he can tell them anything. Which he doesn’t doubt. It’s whether or not they’ll accept it that’s the question. He took a deep breath, continuing to fidget as he talks. Says he needs to tell them something before he talks about his condition. They all agree, again, unsurpringly.

 

"When... When I was young, I used to have a teething problem, and, it's where I would chew on everything as a way to... A way to... soothe myself. I destroyed any strings on my clothes, and my sleeves, burst my lip multiple times, and my dentist said that if I continued to do that I would threaten the developmental process of my jaw."

 

He can see that the band is growing more confused, clearly trying to figure out where he’s going with this. But they don’t interrupt him, which Jisung is grateful for, because if they did he’s almost sure that he’ll lose his cool and escape as fast as he can.

 

"It was my teacher, uh, my teacher suggested to my eomma that I could continue to use my... uh, my pacifier for a little while longer to see if it would make the the whole chewing thing go away. My eomma thought it was a good idea and so she made me use it for longer. I was six at this point."

 

He stopped, took a deep breath and continued.

 

"When I was 7, my eomma was living with her boyfriend and they had been together for a while. He was an ex alcoholic and still sometimes had some issues with drinking, but my eomma really liked him and wanted to help him through it. He always told my eomma that he didn't like me using the pacifier for so long, that it made me look like a baby, and that the other parents used to laugh at me. Eventually" he stops again, fighting down the lump in his throat that is growing. "Him and my eomma ended up having a big fight about it."

 

He can see the rest of the band trying to make connections between his story and the “psychological condition” he mentioned earlier. They’re not going to find it, at least not yet.

 

"This continued for a while. They would fight a lot about it. But one time I remember I was playing in the living room and they were fighting, but for some reason that I don't remember now, he was drunk and... And angry."

 

Jisung is aware when he starts crying, is aware of how Felix moves to comfort him by giving him a side hug, directing him to the footstool so that he's sitting on it next to him, facing the rest of the band on the sofas.

 

"That night, he ended up, he ended up hitting my eomma right in front of me. Made her cry, but she was so so strong and brave and beautiful and told him to get out, that she never wanted to see him again. He realised that he couldn't break her with abuse, and so instead he hit me, in my face, just once though. I don't think he even realised what he was doing until he did it."

 

He rubbed his eyes, because he can’t see through the tears, and it revealed the band’s horrified faces. Next to him, Felix pulls him into a tighter hug.

 

“You don’t need to continue Jisung” Chan says gently. But Jisung just scrubbed his eyes harder with his sleeve and says that he needs to do this. He continues, voice shaky.

 

"He quickly realised that he had found my eomma's greatest weakness. Every time my eomma tried to get rid of him or stand up to him, he would hit me until she begged him to stop, it was how he kept her in check. This continued until I was 8 years old or so, and my eomma was finally able to get enough evidence to report it to the police, and he was arrested.”

 

Jisung can hear the members of the band apologising, calling him brave, calling his eomma brave, calling his eomma strong, asking him what happened. But his heart is pounding so loudly in his ears that their voices are all so blended together he can’t tell who is talking when. So he soldiered on.

 

" I never got therapy, but since nothing ever happened my eomma thought I was fine, and I even grew out of my chewing habit. But when I was 15 and in training, I got super stressed and... Something happened. And after it was over I was... I was... I was so... Disgusted and horrified and embarrassed that I never told anyone and hoped it would never happen again. But when I got stressed it, it happened again, and after that I ended up looking it up online to see what was wrong with me.”

 

He took a deep breath.

 

“That’s the psychological condition that I want to tell you about now…”

 

He can tell they’re confused. Jeongin speaks up first.

 

“What is your condition hyung?”

 

Another deep breath.

 

"There's this... Thing. It's a type of mental condition where to deal with stress of emotional trauma, the brain will force the person to regress to a younger age. It's a coping mechanism."

 

Jisung can see the wheels begin to turn in his bandmate’s brains as the puzzle pieces begin to slot together.

 

"The people that experience this are called Littles, and it's commonly referred to as ageplay by the community."

 

Jisung starts choking up again and has to stop talking. Jeongin talks again before anyone else can.

 

"Jisung hyung, are you a little?" and Jisung lets loose a sob as he nods his head, hiding his face in his sleeve so that he doesn’t have to meet the judging stares that he knows his friends are wearing.  

 

“What can we do to help?” Chan said eventually and Jisung freaks out.

 

“Nothing! Nothing hyung! I just wanted to let you all know just in case I lock myself in my room, that way you know what's happening and to stay away and not worry that I'm dying or something."

 

"Is that good for you?" Woojin asks, sounding weirdly concerned considering what he's just told them.

 

"No, but at least I can just wait for it to be over and no one has to see it." Jisung says.

 

There’s a moment where everyone is quiet. But then Hyunjin asks "so... So you think you're young? When it happens?"

 

"Kind of. It's more complex than that. The piece of the brain that is responsible for age and development literally regresses and I have no control over when it happens. When I am in littlespace, everything apart from my body is say, 4 years old." Jisung explained, heavily embarrassed, but glad that they’re not all immediately calling him a freak.

 

“That sounds scary” Woojin says, and there are a chorus of agreements from the rest of the band, and Jisung nodded.

 

"It is. You lose so many memories and you're almost helpless. I could literally stick a fork in an electrical socket as a game because my little self doesn't know that will kill me"

 

“So what do you do?” Changbin says, and the confusion must show on Jisung’s face because he elaborates soon after, “to stop that type of thing from happening and stuff.”

 

"Well... littles are meant to have something called a caregiver when they regress, who will basically act as a kind of parent or something and take care of them.” Jisung explains. "I dont have one, so I have to make sure that I lock the door to the room and make sure nothing is in it that could hurt me. And then I have to just regress for as short an amount of time as I can manage before snapping myself out of it and continuing my day."

 

“Is that… Is that healthy?” Seungmin asks, sounding doubtful, and Jisung lies.

 

“I don’t know.” It’s not healthy. But he’s not going to tell them that obviously. “Anyway this is going to sound rude but I want to go to bed and stop talking about this." He’s uncomfortable.

 

He can see some of the members ready to argue, but thankfully Woojin stops them, says to let him go and wishes Jisung goodnight. Jisung has never been so thankful for the oldest member, and he wishes the band goodnight before practically sprinting into his bedroom and quickly shutting the door behind him. Once inside he leans against the back of the door and breathes heavily, ready to just crawl into bed and sleep fr three years.

 

 -o-

 

The whole living room exploded into a collection of voices all struggling to try and talk over eachother as everyone goes crazy trying to work through what they’ve all just been told. Though funnily enough, no one is making fun of Jisung at all, in fact, they’re all talking about how to help him. Though some of them do think that it’s a bit weird. Which if Jisung was there, he would call understandable.

 

“I feel so bad for him” Changbin said, sounding upset. “But I’m also a little curious not going to lie.”

 

There’s a couple of minutes where the band chats about the situation, and during that time, Woojin pulls out his phone and starts googling. Eventually he speaks up over the noise, making everyone turn to look at him.

 

“Everyone, I’ve looked up some stuff about littles if you want to hear it?”

 

There’s an overwhelming affirmation and Woojin looks at his phone as he begins to read some sections of the page out.

 

“Littles, also sometimes called ageplayers, can either be a sexual preference, or an unrecognised mental condition that causes the person’s brain to regress their age, meaning that some adults can sometimes act like children when they become stressed or happy. It’s worth noting that the latter version of ageplay is a coping mechanism, and if it is not managed properly, can cause some mental trauma and behavioural issues. If you know a little, then it is worth reading more into this article so that you can know more about taking care of them and how to manage them when they are in headspace.”

 

“What does it say?” Jeongin asks, sounding intreigued, and Woojin looks up to check if everyone wants him to continue. And from what he can see, they do, and so he continues.

 

“Littles obviously require time and effort to take care of, but the experience is ultimately usually a rewarding one. Littles require almost constant attention to make sure that they are happy and not in danger of hurting themselves. Because there brains are literally that of a childs, you must treat them like you would an actual child. Besides that, littles require some equipment, like toys, and loose clothing, since clothing that is too tight can cause heavy uncomfort. Depending on the age range of the little, they may also require additional equipment, such as pacifiers, sippy cups, or even diapers if their regression stage is oddly young. While it can be awkward for a first-time caregiver to deal with this type of thing, it’s important to note that failure to make a little comfortable can lead to further issues in the little’s life, even when out of headspace, and that a happy, healthy little makes an overall happier person.”

 

“Does it say anything about caregivers?” Chan asks, and Woojin makes an “uhh” sound as he scrolled through the article before saying yes as he begins to read it out.

 

“Caregivers are adults that typically take care of a little when they regress. These people do not need to be parental to the little when they are not in littlespace, and can even be close friends, family, or even romantic partners. Their role is to make sure that their little is safe and happy, and generally take care of them. Many experienced caregivers will say that taking care of their little is a truly unique and rewarding experience, though not everyone who tries to be a caregiver will take to it.”

 

He pauses, and everyone looked at the oldest member, confused, and Woojin looks up.

 

“Sorry I got distracted by the next headline”

 

“What’s the next headline” Hyunjin asks before anyone else can.

 

“Dangers of supressing headspace” Woojin reads out, and Jeongin looks around before asking his question.

 

“That’s what Jisung hyung does right?”

 

“Yeah” Felix says, and Hyunjin asked Woojin to read the paragraph out. Which he does.

 

“It is often common for a little to try and repress their headspace when they first find out about it, especially if they do not know anything about littlespace or ageplay. Unfortunately, this can lead to all sorts of further complications in the little’s life, even when out of headspace. Not only can it cause massive amounts of stress in the little’s life, it can also lead to more unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as s-self harm, alcoholism, or other addictions. It can also cause anxiety, insomnia, paranoia and a few other conditions.”

 

“Woah” Seungmin breathes, sounding a little horrified, and that ultimately sums up the reaction of everyone in the room.

 

“I have to admit” Minho says, “I kind of don’t want to see Jisung as a little, I think that would just be too weird, but I think that he definitely needs it, I don’t want him to hurt himself” and Seungmin and Felix nod in agreement.

 

“I want to help him” Chan says, and his voice is uncharacteristically serious, and the rest of Stray Kids nodded in agreement.

 

They talk about it for a little while longer before all heading off to bed, but none of them really sleep super well that night.


	2. Obsession

Over the next week it becomes apparent that Jisung was not getting out of talking about his littlespace so easily. And although every time, he's almost painfully embarrassed, every time one of the members asks him something about being a little, he answers honestly. He figures he at least owes them that, considering none of them have mocked him yet. At least to his face.

 

It’s the day after he told the band and they're all in the dance practice room, they had just finished doing a part of their choreography and decided to take a quick break so that everyone could drink some water and catch their breath. Jisung sprawls out on the floor and breathes heavily, needing a drink but not wanting to get up. His legs feel like jelly. Unfortunately he begins to wish that he had gone to the water fountain or something when Jeongin shuffles closer to him and asks him what it's like being in littlespace.

 

"Yah" he says annoyed, "I thought we were done talking about this."

 

Despite the words, his tone suggests that he isn't as mad as he's pretending to be. Jeongin keeps talking

 

"I'm just curious hyung" and his tone is so earnest and literally curious that Jisung supposes that there is no harm in just telling the boy what he wants to know.

 

"For a moment it's really good I guess, I mean, there's no stress or anything. And I get excited, but it doesn't last long. Because I lock myself in a room my little self panics and once I become hungry or thirsty enough, my body snaps me out of littlespace so that I can go drink and eat." He says, ignoring how Jeongin's face drops. And how everyone else has gone suspiciously quiet.

 

"Do you at least have any toys hyung?"

 

"Not really" Jisung admits honestly "I have a colouring book and some crayons, as well as a stuffed toy I got from a fan sign, but that's it."

 

 Jeongin looks upset.

 

"why would you do that to yourself hyung?"

 

"I don't want to burden anyone. The pain and fear that I can feel while little is not as bad as the embarrassment I would get after getting out of headspace."

 

The conversation ends and the practice continues, and the subject is not brought up again, which Jisung is very happy about. And by the time he gets back to the dorm and into bed, he's totally forgotten about the whole conversation.

 

He's the only one though.

 

-o-

 

Chan sits on his bed, legs crossed and facing Changbin. Both are uncharacteristically serious.

 

"I don't agree with Jisung’s treatment of himself", Chan says, and Changbin hums in agreement.

 

"It seems dangerous" Changbin says, and Chan nods. "I think I'm going to buy Jisung some stuff, just in case we catch him in a regression for some reason." He pulls out his phone and starts typing into the search bar, he and Changbin eventually decide on a pacifier, some diapers, just in case, and some new crayons. Nothing too excessive, it's just a precaution, and they don't want Jisung to know about it.

 

It's the next day when Jisung is walking to get a drink and is stopped by Felix. Who asks him what he meant yesterday by "get hungry and snap out?"

 

Confused as to why the band seems so insistent on him talking about his littlespace, but willing to answer, he does.

 

"I lose motor control when I regress and can't use glasses, so I can't drink."

 

That night Chan orders a sippy cup.

 

-o-

 

The next day, no one says anything, and Jisung starts to let himself think that the band is getting over it. He's wrong.

 

"Hey Jisung" Hyunjin says when their doing their stretches for practice. "How do you know when you’re about to go into headspace?"

 

The question turns Jisung's face red, but he answers honestly.

 

"I don't usually. Not unless someone points it out. It also depends on how comfortable I am. Sometimes I can feel myself slipping, sometimes I don't notice until right before I slip."

 

Hyunjin seems fascinated, and Jisung pretends he doesn't see how the other members are listening in. Which gets a lot harder when they start also asking questions.

 

"Do you have any tells?" Changbin asks. And Jisung is confused until Changbin elaborates.

 

"Like, do you do anything before you go into littlespace that stands out as not normal?"

 

Jisung thinks that Changbin is asking because he wants to know when to leave Jisung alone, and so he answers that honestly as well.

 

"Well you know how I said I used to chew things when I was young?" Jisung asks, and Changbin nods. "When I regress my brain retreats to my younger self, so I'll bite more stuff, like my sleeves. And uh..." he's embarrassed to continue, but does so anyway. "I will run my thumb over my lip, like this."

 

He demonstrates by taking his right thumb, folding the fingers into a fist and leaving the thumb sticking out, and gently pressing it against his bottom lip, moving it side to side along the waterline. He's blushing the whole time, since it's so close to the action of sucking his thumb. But no one comments on it, they just nod and go back to practice. And Jisung breaths easier.

 

-o-

 

With how embarrassed and stressed he's been that week, having to tell the truth about his past and his headspace to the band, it’s no wonder when later he starts to lose it a bit.

 

The band is in practice 8 days after Jisung admitted that he was a little, and they're taking a rest break when Jisung realises that the band members are staring at him. He goes to ask if there's something wrong when he realises that his thumb is brushing over his bottom lip. Not close to the waterline, but close enough to freak him out. He hadn’t realised how close to his headspace he was, and he leaps to his feet, ripping his hand away from his mouth.

 

"I have to go" he said, and runs out of the room and all the way back to the dorms. Praying that no one will follow him.

 

Once he gets there he locks himself in his bedroom and hides under the covers as he regresses.

 

His little self gets out of bed, and when he realises he's trapped and alone, starts crying. And no one comes to help him despite his pleas.

 

-o-

 

Meanwhile back at the practice room, the other members are very concerned, some want to go back and help him but Woojin says to wait until they've talked to Jisung, otherwise they could lose his trust.

 

"But hyung" Hyunjin protests, "what if he needs us?" Besides him, Jeongin and Changbin nod enthusiastically. But Woojin is firm.

 

"No. Jisung specifically told us to leave him alone. If we don't, he'll trust us even less. I know it's not ideal. I want to help him too. But going after him now isn't going to help him, only hurt him."

 

"Woojin is right" Chan says seriously. "Let's just wait ok?"

 

The others agree slowly and get back to practicing.

 

When they get back to the dorm an hour later, Jisung isn't there. But when Seungmin tries the door to his bedroom, it is locked. They're all worried and wait around for something to happen, which nothing does for another half an hour.

 

Half an hour later Jisung opens the bedroom door and walks out. His cheeks look tacky and his eyes are red and swollen. It's very obvious that he's been crying, and the band's heart break a little at the sight. But what is more concerning, is the trickle of blood sitting on his bottom lip and some of the way down his chin.

 

"Jisung!" Chan says, shocked, and runs up to the boy, wiping some of the blood away so that he can see the damage. Jisung is too tired and feeling too awful to protest so he just let's his hyung check him over.

 

"I'm okay hyung, really" Jisung says with a smile, and Chan can feel his heart break a little more at the obvious lie.

 

"Well we should probably put some antiseptic on it before something happens." Woojin says and Chan agrees, leading Jisung into the kitchen where they keep some medical supplies.

 

-o-

 

The next day, Chan calls a meeting with all the members, except Jisung who is in bed. They all sit in the living room while Chan stands behind the footstool, where Jisung had stood when he told the band about him being a little.

 

"I want to try and tell Jisung that he can go into his headspace around us" Chan says, to the point.

 

"I knew that's what this meeting was about" Minho says, and Hyunjin gestures for him to be quiet. Chan continues.

 

"Hearing how he treats himself makes me feel so bad for him, I want to tell him that we will act as his caregivers, are you all with me?"

 

Jeongin, Woojin, Changbin and Hyunjin are enthusiastic, immediately agreeing and talking about how they might tell him. Felix seemed a little wary, but he says he's willing to try, and Seungmin is the same, but said he was a little uncomfortable at the thought.

 

"I know this is going to sound awful" Minho says, "but I don't really want to see Jisung in littlespace. But I really don't mind you all taking care of him when he regresses. If he lets you that is."

 

"That's fine" Chan says, "you and anyone else don't have to be there if you don't want to."

 

"Would Jisung even agree to that?" Felix asked, and there are some murmurs of agreement.

 

"We'll ask him tomorrow" Chan says and the band all head off to bed.

 

-o-

 

After practice the next day, Chan calls everyone into the living room while Jisung is using the shower, saying that they're going to bring up the subject in what is hopefully not an overly creepy or awkward way. They all chat amongst themselves, about how the practice went and how they can improve.

 

After about 10 minutes, Jisung walks out of the bathroom, dressed in some comfortable clothes as he towels off his hair. The moment he sees the whole band turn to look at him and stop talking, he freezes.

 

"Hey Jisung" Chan says gently, "can you come sit down for a second, we want to have a band meeting."

 

Confused and nervous, but also having a small idea of what they might want to talk about, Jisung nods and does what Chan says, sitting down on the sofa in-between Changbin and Seungmin.

 

"Yeah hyung? What is this about?"

 

Chan links his fingers, figiting nervously, but he keeps looking at Jisung as he talks.

 

"Look, we're all really worried about you. The way you talk about being a little and how it makes you feel, and what you do to try and control it. It just... It doesn't sound healthy. And we thought we could try and uh, try and help you out? If you would let us?"

 

"Help me?" Jisung asks, a horrible sinking feeling in his stomach. "What do you mean hyung?"

 

"We want to be your caregivers" Woojin interrupts, and Jisung stiffens as his fears are realised. It takes him almost a full minute to remember how to speak, and he only responds when Jeongin calls out "Jisung hyung?" from the other side of the living room.

 

"No" he says, his voice sounding choked, "no no no no no, hell no"

 

He's aware that he sounds like a broken record, but his blood is running too loudly in his ears for him to think properly. He stands up, wanting to escape, but Changbin gently grabs his sleeve and stops him.

 

"Jisung, just hear us out okay?" He asks, and although he just wants to go to bed and get away from all of this, he also knows that this whole awkward situation won't be solved until he can say more than the word "no." He sits down again and sees the whole band sigh in relief.

 

"No" he says again, because he feels like he needs to say something to break the silence, but he can't find the words for a second. "I've been dealing with it alone since I was 15, and nothings gone wrong so far, so I'm fine. I'm fine. Plus, I'm too embarrassed to have you all take care of my little form."

 

There's an outcry of voices and Jisung can't make out what anyone is saying, but from the words he catches it sounds like reassurance. Eventually Chan realises that them all yelling isn't helpful, and talks over everyone asking them to be quiet until they do.

 

"Jisung" he says seriously, and Jisung shrinks in on himself a little at the patient and understanding tone. "It's totally fine, we're not doing this to make you feel embarrassed, we're doing this because we want to help you."

 

Jisung goes to say something but is cut off by Woojin.

 

"We know that you use your headspace as a coping mechanism, and that you can't control it. And we don't think you're weird or anything, and even if we did, we'd still want to help you."

 

"And it's not even that embarrassing" Hyunjin says, "like, it honestly even sounds cute, and if it helps you deal with stress then that's what we want."

 

Jisung can feel himself begin to sway a little bit, tempted by his bandmate's kind words and gentle, soothing tones, but holds firm, remembering how embarrassed he would be if he was to regress in front of them. He's wholly unaware of the band being able to see the want in his eyes.

 

Eventually, after reassurances from all of the band, Jeongin speaks up.

 

"Jisung hyung, do you not trust us enough to believe that we want to help you?"

 

Jisung can feel his chest tightening at the maknae's sad eyes bearing into him.

 

"Plus, I really want to see you when you're little, and I want to help you, can't you let me do that?"

 

It's very obvious that Jeongin is trying to guilt trip him into saying yes, and Jisung gets frustrated, because he knows that it's a ploy, but he cares so much about Jeongin that he doesn't want to see him upset. Which he genuinely looks.

 

Eventually he snaps out "fine! Fine!" over the sound of everyone picking up talking again. And for a second the silence is deafening, but then everyone is congratulating him and to his side, Changbin hugs him. When they calm down, Jisung is quick to try and dissuade them.

 

"But it doesn't matter that I say yes, because my brain automatically rejects being little in front of you all.

 

"We'll work something out" Chan says, and he looks too happy for Jisung to say anything. Then he looks at Seungmin, Jisung and Minho. "I need people to come with me to pick up the takeout, can you all come with me to help?"

 

The request doesnt seem odd to Jisung, they had talked about getting takeout. What is strange is that it's usually Jeongin that's made to help because he's the maknae. He shrugs it off though and stands up with Minho and Seungmin, and they head to the door to pull on their shoes and coats for the walk to the food place. He doesn't see the way Chan nods to Woojin on the way out.

 

Once they're gone, Woojin turns to the others.

 

"Okay, before they all get back, me and Chan suspected that Jisung would say something like that, about not being able to go into littlespace. So we looked up some stuff on the internet about, quote, how to lure a stubborn little into littlespace, unquote."

 

"Wow, you really did think of everything hyung" Hyunjin says, and Felix and Changbin nod in agreement, and Woojin smiles.

 

"What do we have to do hyung?" Jeongin asks, and Woojin pulls out his phone, reading off of it.

 

"You basically just have to make sure they're close to littlespace before you do anything, then cuddle them, do easy tasks for them like dress them and take their shoes off, subtly drop honorifics, give reassurance. That kind of thing. So if we don't ask him to be little and are sneaky about it, he might slip faster." Woojin finishes.

 

The boys note that before all getting up and setting the table ready for the takeout.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heya guys! your comments spurred me on to write this chapter so thank you for that x  
> as you can probably tell i got my english friend to beta this chapter so the grammar is much better. apparently i have a lot of problems with understanding english tenses and how they work lol, so my friend told me i had to choose past tense or present tense, and i chose present because she writes in present and it's easier for her to beta (even if i find past tense easier haha)
> 
> also, where's-my-badger said some important stuff about the last chapter so i will paste it here  
> ageplay doesn't necessarily come from trauma, and that there are different types of headspace: some people are really mentally children when in headspace, that's called a D.I.D little, when it's almost as if that person is another person entirely when they are little, and they actually have the mindset of a child. But for some other people, headspace is just a state of the mind where you are still conscious of your adult life and self, but you manage to relax enough to get rid of the social values that keep you from doing things that wouldn't be considered normal for someone your age. This type of little is conscious of everything around them, but in a state of mind where their logical adult side is repressed and doesn't interfere in their decision making process.
> 
> so jisung is a little who regresses because of past trauma, meaning that his experience and "regression cycle" (when he feels he needs to go into littlespace) will be different than say, another little's.
> 
> no little jisung yet, but don't worry, he'll be appearing soon, hope you're excited.
> 
> please leave a review xxx


	3. Regression pt 1

It’s 2 weeks a half later and the band is having a bit of an off day. It’s not a day for a holiday or something like that, just a day where they don’t have dance practice, and are working on lyrics, choreography and resting their voices. Chan, Woojin, Felix and Changbin are at the studio, working on some lyrics for a song, and Minho, Seungmin, Jeongin, Jisung and Hyunjin are at the dorm. Jisung is in his bedroom with Seungmin and he can feel himself beginning to get frustrated when he can’t get the lyrics he wants to write right. He was going to go to the studio, but he slept in and they left without him, and so he just decided to do it in his room, which he’s regretting now because his brain just doesn’t want to concentrate.

 

“Ugh!” he says annoyed, and throws down his pen. It bounces off the desk and falls down the side, and Jisung tries not to stick his tongue out at it. Seungmin looks up, but he has earphones in and is behind Jisung, and obviously doesn’t see how upset Jisung is, because he goes back to his phone.

 

He looks at the clock and sees that he’s been working on the lyrics for half an hour, and he’s only managed to do a couple of lines. It’s very frustrating and he decides he needs a break, so he gets up to get a drink.

 

-o-

 

“Should we head to the studio soon then?” Minho asks as he looks up from his phone at Hyunjin and Jeongin, who are sitting on the living room sofa across from him. Hyunjin is on the 3 seater, and Jeongin is on the 2 seater next to it, both look up at him at his question.

 

“Probably. Do you want to go get Seungmin and Jisung then?”

 

The door suddenly opens and Jisung walks out, rubbing a hand harshly through his hair. The 3 are so surprised that they totally forget to mention the studio, and instead Minho just goes “hi Jisung” and Jisung responds by grunting out a “hi hyung” before walking into the kitchen. The three look at eachother confusedly. There’s a clatter from the kitchen and a hushed curse, before the tap turns on, and it’s clear that Jisung must have dropped his cup.

 

He then walks out, without the drink and looking at his phone, and he doesn’t seem aware that he’s running his thumb over the waterline of his bottom lip as he looks at his phone screen. Jeongin and Hyunjin notice though, and start gesturing to one another excitedly. Minho catches it as well, and quietly whispers that he’ll be in his room and he’ll grab Seungmin as well before wishing them luck and leaving, though he does go get Seungmin before they leave.

 

“Hey Jisungie~!” Hyunjin says with a trill, and it makes Jisung look up with a confused face.

 

“Yeah?” he says.

 

Hyunjin gestures to Jisung to come closer, which he does, putting his phone into his pocket. He goes to talk, probably to ask what Hyunjin wants, but gets cut off by Hyunjin grabbing his waist and pulling him into his lap. Jisung squeaks in shock, trying to process what just happened.

 

“What the hell Hyunjin?” Jisung says, and tries to wiggle out of Hyunjin’s grasp, but Hyunjin holds on tight and nuzzles into Jisung’s neck.

 

 “But Jisungie! I’m feeling weirdly cuddly and Jeongin won't indulge me.”

 

Jisung doesn't suspect anything and indulges him, even when Hyunjin begins to pet his hair. It's not unusual for Hyunjin to be very touchy, and Jisung is pretty touchy as well so he relaxes into the cuddle and the touches. Jisung’s also always been a sucker for people petting his hair, since it reminded him of his mom so much.

 

Jeongin and Hyunjin watch as Jisung seems to get sleepier and sleepier over the course of 5 minutes or so, and how he curls up more and more onto Hyunjin, grabbing Hyunjin's shirt. Jeongin starts trying to subtly gesture to Hyunjin really excitedly when Jisung starts almost chewing on his sleeve, and Hyunjin can't wave his hands to show his excitement, so he settles on just grinning.

 

"Hey Jisungie? Why are you still wearing your shoes inside?" Hyunjin asks, and Jisung says "I don't know." He seems a little out of it. Hyunjin gestures to Jeongin and Jeongin slowly gets up and takes Jisung's shoes off. Meanwhile Jisung feels so warm and oddly safe in Hyunjin’s arms that his body feels like it’s moving through treacle and his brain feels fuzzy, like he can’t keep hold of any of his thoughts for more than a couple of seconds. It becomes harder and harder to focus on anything that isn’t the feeling of Hyunjin’s hand moving gently through his hair. What he doesn’t realise is that the reason he feels like that is because he’s slipping into littlespace fast, something which Hyunjin and Jeongin are noticing, and are very excited about.

 

Jeongin says "Jisung are you okay" as he sits down on the sofa again and Hyunjin realises that Jeongin didn't put the honorific there, but Jisung doesn’t say anything, like he didn't even hear the difference.

 

Jisung almost seems to be falling asleep, but that's not the point of what they're doing, and so Hyunjin has to think of something fast, hopefully something that won't have Jisung slipping any further out of headspace. He has an idea and begins to tickle Jisung who screeches out his betrayal as he laughs loudly. For a moment Hyunjin thinks that he's made it so Jisung isn't near his headspace anymore, but then Jisung's voice rings out into the room, making both Hyunjin and Jeongin pause.

 

"Jinnie hyung! Jinnie hyung! Stop!" Jisung screeches, and Hyunjin stops, leaving Jisung to breathe heavily as he giggles. Jeongin and Hyunjin soon realise Jisung is now entirely in littlespace.

 

Hyunjin says "Jisungie?" and Jisung giggles, blushing as he looks at Hyunjin.

 

"Hyungie?" Jisung says in a more high pitched voice than usual, and mirrors Hyunjin's expression by tilting his head to the side as he absently chews on his sleeve.

 

Jeongin does a happy screech noise and gets up so he can walk over to the sofa and see Jisung

 

"Jisungie? Do you know who I am?" Jeongin asks.

 

"Jeonginie hyung!" Jisung yells and throws his arms out for a hug, which Jeongin returns happily, smiling widely.

 

"You want to go wear some more comfortable clothes so we can play Jisungie?" Jeongin says once Jisung lets go of him, and Jisung gets visibly excited.

 

"Play!?! No one ever played with Jisungie before!"

 

Jeongin and Hyunjin's hearts melt and Hyunjin picks Jisung up so that they can go change his top, since he's already wearing sweatpants and they're pretty comfortable already. As he picks them up he marvels at how light Jisung is.

 

-o-

 

Woojin is in the recording studio watching as Chan, Felix and Changbin pour over a computer as they work on some lyrics. He's taking a break and is on his phone when it starts to ring. The caller ID says Hyunjin, and Woojin answers the call, putting the phone to his ear.

 

"Hello?"

 

"Hey hyung" Hyunjin says over the line, he sounds happy, or excited, and Woojin is about to ask before Hyunjin continues. "We were trying to call Chan hyung earlier but he wasn't picking up."

 

"Chan has his phone on silent so he can work" Woojin responds, and at the mention of his name, Chan perks up and looks at Woojin with a raised eyebrow.

 

"Ah" Hyunjin says, "well we wanted to let you all know that Jisung is in littlespace and me and Jeongin are taking care of him."

 

Woojin can feel his eyes widen in shock, and he's aware that now the other three are looking at him curiously.

 

"Hold on one second" Woojin says and he covers the receiver so that he can talk to them,

 

"Jisung is in littlespace back at the dorm" he explains, and watches the shock appear on their faces.

 

Changbin then gets excited and starts bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. "Woojin hyung, Chan hyung! Can we go home and see? Please?!"

 

Chan agrees and they all pack up and head out.

 

-o-

 

When the group gets back to the dorms, they're greeted with a sight none of them expected.

 

Jeongin is prowling back and forth along the living room in front of the sofa, the sofa where Hyunjin is sitting and has Jisung curled up between his legs, with his back against Hyunjin's chest. Jisung is wearing a large sweater that the group recognises as Hyunjin's and the sweatpants he was wearing this morning, and he's looking with wonder at Jeongin. Jisung is pretty childish a bit of the time, but his face is showing an expression that the rest of Stray Kids has never seen before.

 

Jeongin suddenly makes a growling sound and Jisung presses back further against Hyunjin with a squeak, and Hyunjin puts his arms around Jisung's stomach.

 

"Careful Sungie, the monster is getting closer and I don't know if I can protect you!" Hyunjin says, his tone full of fake terror, but also amusement that is not hidden very well. And Jisung screeches when Jeongin comes closer, clapping his hands quickly in excitement. Fuelled by Jisung's reaction, Hyunjin continues.

 

"You'll never take Sungie from me!" Hyunjin yells dramatically and cuddles Jisung closer, nuzzling into his hair and making Jisung give the purest, unburdened laugh the rest of the band has ever heard.

 

Jeongin suddenly goes "that's what you think!" and Jisung laughs again, says "Jinnie hyung! Monster monster!"

 

That's when it becomes too much for Changbin to stay quiet and he squeals, "aigo!! So cute~!" he says quietly, making all their attention turn to the group at the door.

 

Hyunjin suddenly puts on an expression of horror and yells out

 

"Oh no! Sungie! The monster is going to get them too!" and Jisung gasps, looking horrified as Jeongin plays along and faces the group at the door as he begins stalking Felix.

 

"Watch out Fe hyung!" Jisung suddenly yells, making a gesture with his hands towards him.

 

Felix is clearly overwhelmed at the situation and just goes "uhh" before Changbin pushes him out of the way and goes "I'll protect you Felix!"

 

Jeongin "lunges" towards Changbin and Changbin pretends to stab Jeongin, who falls to the floor dramatically groaning before lying still and sticking his tongue out the side of his mouth.

 

"Yay!" Jisung yells, turning towards Hyunjin, "monster dead Jinnie hyung!" And Changbin looks delighted.

 

"He sure is Sungie, which means you're all mine now!” Hyunjin says and snuggles him, making Jisung screech-laugh.

 

While that is happening, Jeongin gets up and beckons for the group at the door to come closer, which they do.

 

"Sungie? Do you recognise these hyungs?" Jeongin asks, gesturing towards the group, and Jisung gets shyer at all the gazes on him and nods, blushing lightly.

 

"He's so cute!" Changbin coos, making Jisung blush harder and try to hide his face in Hyunjin's shoulder. Hyunjin chuckles at the reaction and rubs his arm, trying to get Jisung to turn around and greet his hyungs.

 

To try and help with that, Chan walks forward and kneels in front of the sofa, and consequently in front of Hyunjin and Jisung.

 

"You remember me?" Chan asks, and Woojin chuckles at the way Chan pitches his voice up so naturally, like his brain really thinks he's talking to a child.

 

Jisung nods, actually getting less shy, and he smiles and gently pats Chan's head a couple of times while calling out an excited "Channie hyung!"

 

The rest of the band try to hide their laughs at the way Chan obviously Melts.

 

"We think his age is around 5 but we don't know." Hyunjin says, but before he can continue, Jeongin comes over and goes "my turn!" before picking Jisung up and putting him on his lap as Hyunjin splutters in indignation.

 

"Isn't he heavy?" Felix asks confused.

 

Jeongin says "kind of? I don't think I could carry him for more than one or two minutes but he's definitely light enough for short journeys."

 

"I can carry him for longer" Hyunjin says, and Jeongin sticks his tongue out at him.

 

Jisung grumbles a little at the movement but he settles down pretty quickly and tucks himself under Jeongin's chin.

 

"Hyungs" Jeongin says to Changbin, Felix and Woojin, "come introduce themselves so that Jisung can get to know you better."

 

Woojin goes and crouches in front of Jisung

 

"Heya Sungie, you know who I am?" and Jisung says "Woojinnie hyung!" with a smile. Woojin smiles back before gesturing to Felix and Changbin to come closer, which they do. Woojin then points at them and says "you know who they are?" and Jisung claps his hands and points at them, goes "Fe hyung and Binnie hyung!" and Changbin whispers to Chan that he thinks he's dying from how cute Jisung is.

 

Hyunjin says "hey Bug, you wanna watch some cartoons?" and Jisung seems to get really excited, and nods, immediately gluing his eyes to the TV when Hyunjin puts it on.

 

"Hey everyone" Woojin says, and everyone looks at him besides Jisung, "as much as I want to stay, I really need to go shopping to buy some stuff for dinner, and I need two of you to come with me.

 

"I'll go hyung" Felix says, and stands up from the sofa, and Hyunjin immediately points at Jeongin

 

"Jeongin can go cause he's the maknae!"

 

"You're just saying that because you want Jisungie" Jeongin snaps back, and Hyunjin winks when he thinks no one else but Jeongin is looking.

 

In response, Jeongin narrows his eyes and turns to Chan, blinking sweetly. "Chan hyung can you sit down please so you can take care of Jisungie for me?"

 

Hyunjin makes an offended expression and Jeongin is clearly smug.

 

"What am I meant to do?" Chan asks, sounding a little unsure but also excited.

 

"Just treat him like you would a five year old hyung, hold him" Jeongin explains and gets up before he places Jisung in Chan's lap. Jisung squirms a little to get used to yet another new position, but he seems still distracted by the cartoons on the TV. This gives Chan a chance to get used to holding Jisung, and it ends up being Jisung sat between Chan's legs with his legs crossed and his back against Chan's chest.

 

The 3 of them get ready to leave, but when Jisung realises that Jeongin is leaving he pulls his attention off of the TV, he whines.

 

"Jeonginie hyung, you go?"

 

"Don’t worry Sungie I'll be back soon, be good for Channie hyung okay?" Jeongin says gently and Jisung nods before snuggling back up to Chan and watching the cartoons again. Chan internally coos at how cute little Jisung is.

 

"How did you even get him into littlespace?" Chan asks Hyunjin, who turns away from the TV to answer the question, Changbin also turns to look.

 

"We just did what Woojin hyung said to do, I cuddled him and got Jeongin to remove his shoes, then Jeongin dropped the honorifics, stuff like that. We knew he was already close to littlespace because he was doing this" he starts rubbing his thumb over the waterline of his bottom lip. "And so I tickled him and that's when he must have gone into headspace."

 

"Huh" Chan says, and they leave the conversation at that and start watching the show.

 

After 10 minutes, Hyunjin realises that Jisung has started chewing on the sleeve of his sweater.

 

"Don’t chew your sleeves, Bug" Hyunjin says as he pulls Jisung's hand away from the sleeve, making him whine, but the whine gets cut off by Jisung yawning, and it's very cute.

 

"You tired Sungie?" Chan asks, craning his neck so that he can see Jisung's face.

 

"Not sleepy" Jisung whines, which is immediately unproven by how he yawns again.

 

"Should I go get the pacifier?" Changbin asks, when Jisung starts trying to bite his sleeve again.

 

Chan says yes, and Changbin gets up and leaves the room. Hyunjin looks at Chan confusedly.

 

"Since when did Jisungie have a pacifier?" Hyunjin asks.

 

"I bought it about a week ago when Jisung said he didn't have anything." Chan explains.

 

Changbin comes back with the pacifier, Hyunjin notices that it's larger than a normal pacifier and is white with cartoony baby blue stars on it.

 

Changbin asks "What are we going to do if, uhh, if big Jisung is mad at us for giving him it?"

 

"Well" Chan says as he shifts Jisung, who is squirming as he chews on the sweater sleeve. "He obviously needs it"

 

Hyunjin says "plus he's going to ruin the sleeves of my sweater at this rate" and so Changbin caves and gives the pacifier to Chan.

 

Chan takes the pacifier and coaxes Jisung to look at him by saying his name softly, and Jisung eventually does, still biting the sleeve of the jumper. It's cute, but probably not good for him, so Chan shows him the pacifier and Jisung lights up, making the 3 caretakers chuckle. Jisung spits the sleeve out and makes grabby hands at the pacifier while going "Channie hyung! Channie hyung!" and Chan smiles at the sight while Changbin and Hyunjin coo.

 

"Open your mouth Sungie" Chan says, and surprisingly, Jisung does, and Chan gently puts the pacifier in there.

 

Immediately Jisung closes his mouth around the pacifier and starts sucking it, humming happily as he puts his head against Chan's chest and continues to watch the show, but his eyes are slowly beginning to slip closed..

 

"This may sound a little weird or creepy," Hyunjin says "but does Sungie just look really adorable right now?"

 

Changbin sighs in relief, "I feel the same, I thought I was the only one"

 

"I think it's his cheeks" Chan says as he looks at Jisung's face, "he just looks really squishy" and Changbin and Hyunjin nod in agreement.

 

Over the next half an hour or so they continue to talk about what Chan bought based off of what Jisung was saying about his experience. During that time, Jisung ends up falling asleep and they have to talk quieter to make sure that they don't wake him up.

 

"Maybe we should put everything in a box for Jisung just in case? Like all his little stuff?" Hyunjin suggests, and Chan and Changbin agree that it sounds like a good idea.

 

"Do you think that big Jisung might be really upset when he comes out of headspace?" Hyunjin asks.

 

"About the pacifier?" Changbin asks

 

"No" Hyunjin says, "about me and Jeongin making him go into littlespace and taking care of him."

 

"We're just going to have to reassure him that we really do want to take care of him and prompt him to keep going into headspace I guess." Chan says. "And as for the pacifier we've already talked about that."

 

And with that they continue to talk quietly and watch the show while they wait for the other 3 to get back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> little!Jisung at last! it'll continue next chapter as well so i hope you're excited!


	4. Regression pt 2

Eventually Woojin, Felix and Jeongin come back with the shopping, making more noise in the hall than the 3 in the living room are comfortable with because Jisung is still sleeping.

 

"Hey we're back!" Jeongin calls and the 3 all "ssshhhhh" at the same time, making Jeongin pause as he enters the living room, confused because he can't see Jisung from where he is standing.

 

"Jisung is sleeping" Changbin says, and Jeongin gets really excited and goes over to see, cooing over how cute he is.

 

"You're weirdly enthusiastic about Jisung being a little" Felix says to Jeongin.

 

"Well I've always loved kids and like taking care of people" Jeongin says, "but I can't take care of anyone in the band because I'm the maknae, which I didn't even want to be. Sorry hyungs."

 

"You see him as a kid?" Felix asks and Jeongin says "duh. Felix hyung his brain literally reverts to that of a child. Right now he IS a child, just in an older body."

 

"I can't wrap my head around it is all" Felix says, "but I want to understand the way that you all do."

 

"You will" Jeongin says, "you'll get there eventually hyung." Felix gives the maknae a smile, which he returns.

 

"Can someone help me make the dinner?" Woojin asks and Chan agrees before realising that Jisung is still sleeping on him, making everyone laugh quietly.

 

"It's probably time to wake Jisung up anyway so that he can sleep enough tonight" Hyunjin says. Chan agrees and gently wakes Jisung up.

 

"Sungie? Bug, come on wake up" Chan coos, shaking him slightly.

 

Jisung yawns and grumbles as he wakes up, and the group (except Felix) coo as he rubs his eyes and yawns cutely, though Felix does look like he's having an internal battle inside him.

 

"Do you want to do some colouring, Bug?" Hyunjin asks, and Jisung says yes, makes grabby hands at Hyunjin, who lifts him up and sets him on his hip while he asks Changbin to go get Jisung's colouring stuff from his box. Changbin agrees and goes off to get them while Chan gets up and goes into the kitchen to help Woojin make dinner.

 

After a minute, Changbin comes back with the book and crayons and Hyunjin sets Jisung down so that he can colour-in for a while. Jisung lies down on his front and kicks his feet up behind him as he opens his book and begins to colour in a picture of a bunny, Jeongin and Hyunjin sit on the couch and Felix sits on the floor with his back against the sofa. Changbin sits on the floor next to Jisung and after a few minutes asks how many pages of the book he has coloured.

 

Surprising everyone, Jisung suddenly crawls into Changbin's lap and starts talking about his drawings, taking out the pacifier so that he can talk properly.

 

"Dog!" Jisung says as he points at a picture of a dog. The brown crayon goes out of the lines in a lot of places and it's not a smooth colour-in at all. It really looks like something a young child would have done.

 

Every double page of the colouring book has a line drawing on the left to be coloured in, and a blank page on the right, and the group notice that some of the blank pages have doodles on. They're also pretty standard of a young child, but the 4 notice that some are more... disturbing.

 

For example, Changbin stops Jisung from turning the pages and focuses on one of the drawings on the blank page. It's a picture of a stick figure surrounded by a black cloud of messy crayon scribbles.

 

"What's that one Jisungie?" Changbin asks, pointing at it, and Jisung copies Changbin by also pointing at it as he talks.

 

"That's Jisungie." he says.

 

Hyunjin, Jeongin, Felix and Changbin are suddenly very concerned

 

"What do you mean by that Bug?" Hyunjin asks, and Jisung keeps looking at the page, he doesn't meet Hyunjin's eyes.

 

"Jisungie was alone and it was dark and no one came" Jisung says quietly, but they can all still hear them. "Jisungie was so scared"

 

"Is that when you were locked in the room?" Jeongin asks, and Jisung nods.

 

"Scawed" he says again, and his child-like speech impediment grows much stronger as his lip begins to wobble. He's clearly on the verge of tears. In response, Changbin cuddles him closer, trying to make him feel safe.

 

"Well we'll never let you be locked in the room ever again if we can help it Jisungie."

 

Jisung immediately perks up and turns to try and see Changbin. "Really?! he yells, and the 4 of them are quick to reassure him and tell him that they won't let him be locked in the room again, making Jisung smile and hug Changbin back.

 

After a second, Felix shuffles closer to Jisung.

 

"You. Uh. You wanna play I Spy Jisungie?" Felix asks.

 

"Whats that?" Jisung says, sounding confused, and so Felix begins to explain the rules of the game.

 

Changbin looks at Hyunjin and Jeongin with a smile and mouths 'he's trying' to which Hyunjin and Jeongin smile back and nod.

 

The game of I Spy lasts about 10 minutes before Jisung becomes bored, but thankfully they are saved by Woojin, who walks in from the kitchen to call them in for dinner, he’s carrying two plates of food and gestures to Hyunjin with his chin

 

“Hyunjin can you take these plates to Seungmin and Minho for me?”

 

“Sure hyung” Hyunjin says and takes the plates, walking away down the hall to Woojin and Minho’s room, where the 2 of them are hanging out. Meanwhile, Changbin pulls Jisung up and leads him into the kitchen and into a chair, sitting him next to him.

 

“Hyung can I be the one to help feed Jisung?” Jeongin asks

 

“Okay, just as long as you eats your own food as well.” Woojin says as he sits down.

 

For dinner, Woojin and Chan have prepared some gimbap rolls and rice, Jisung has a very simple dish of smaller gimbap rolls in front of him, which Jeongin begins to feed Jisung with some chopsticks. Jisung has a crayon which he brought from the living room and is playing with, but when the food approaches his mouth he opens it automatically and let Jeongin put it in, chewing as he fidgets. But soon his face screws up and the band laughs fondly at the expression.

 

“Maybe we should try something a little simpler next time?” Chan asks, and Woojin nods in agreement. Jisung, despite not liking it, continues to keep eating it, probably to make his hyungs happy, which is honestly the most adorable thing ever.

 

When they finish the meal the band spends a few minutes talking, Jisung seeming content just playing with the yellow crayon, Changbin keeps an eye on it to make sure he doesn’t start trying to draw on the table, but Jisung doesn’t, he just kind of waves it around like it’s a rocket ship. But after a while, Jisung obviously gets bored after about 10 minutes, and says he wants to play.

 

Hyunjin and Changbin say they'll play and Jeongin and Felix say that they will help Chan and Woojin wash up and put everything away. Jisung gets up off the chair, obviously planning to run into the living room, but before he can, Hyunjin swings him up into a fireman's carry with only a grunt of effort and Jisung shrieks with joy.

 

“Be careful Hyunjin, Jisung has just ate.” Woojin says, eyeing how Jisung  is now lying on his stomach across Hyunjin’s shoulders, giggling. “And be careful”

 

“We promise we will hyung” Changbin says and he and Hyunjin walk into the living room.

 

“How are you feeling Felix?” Chan asks once the 3 of them are gone.

 

““I’m still not completely used to it hyung, I won’t lie.  But I definitely don't find it nearly as weird as I first did. I think my brain is finally comprehending that this is just how Jisung is.”

 

“Well, doing this will keep big Jisung from getting too stressed or hurting him all” Jeongin says as he washes the dishes. “Plus you heard the other ways he could cope, ways that are… less adorable.” And looks at his wrists, making Felix flinch.

 

Chan admonishes Jeongin for saying so, and Jeongin apologises but says that he isn't wrong.

 

"I guess it is kind of cute" Felix says and Chan goes "it's almost stupidly cute" and Jeongin and Woojin agree.

 

They continue to talk about things, like the latest comeback, but then after a while, Jisung suddenly runs into the kitchen and hides behind Woojin, surprising them all. Before they can even ask what is happening, Hyunjin walks into the kitchen, looking around in an exaggerated manner.

 

"Come out come out wherever you are! I'm going to find you Jisungie!" Hyunjin calls out and Jisung giggles, holding into the back of Woojin's leg. "Hmm, doesn't look like he's in here unfortunately. But where could he have possibly gone?" Hyunjin continues and Jisung giggles again. Jeongin tries not to laugh and even Felix is smiling. Chan and Woojin just seem fond.

 

"Did you find him yet?" Changbin asks as he walks in, pointedly not looking at where Jisung is poorly concealed.

 

"No, he's a master at hiding" Hyunjin says, and Jisung giggles again, louder this time, but Hyunjin and Changbin don’t respond.

 

Changbin turns to the group in the kitchen and says "do any of you know where he's gone?" and everyone in the kitchen says no.

 

“Nope”

 

“Haven’t seen him hyung”

 

“Sorry, he must be somewhere else.”

 

“Agh!” Hyunjin says loudly and dramatically. “I guess we are never going to find him!” he melancholies. “Maybe he’s in the bedroom!”

 

“Good plan” Changbin says, and they leave Hyunjin shoots a wink at the group before they leave though, and Woojin turns to face Jisung.

 

"No find Jisungie?" Jisung asks and Woojin ruffles his hair, making Jisung laugh, "no, Bug, they didn't. You're just too good at hide and seek" he says, and Jisung beams. Jeongin ruffles Jisung’s hair and Jisung laughs, trying to bat his hands away before going to run into the living room, but he is stopped by Chan’s voice.

 

"Jisungie" he says, making Jisung turn around and cock his head to the side

 

"Yes Channie hyung? Jisungie go play?" he asks.

 

"In a moment, bug" Chan says and walks forward so that he’s standing in front of Jisung. “I just wanted to know, what kinds of toys do you like?"

 

Jisung's eyes go huge.

 

"Toys?"

 

"Yes" Chan says with a small smile.

 

"Jisungie never has toys before, only colour book and Bora!" Jisung says. But then he seems to get sadder and shrinks in on himself. "Jisungie bad. No should want toys. No need them."

 

The group in the kitchen exchange concerned looks, Jeongin says "why do you think you don't deserve toys Sungie?"

 

To the surprise of the group, Jisung hiccups a small sob and starts crying, making Chan rush forward to comfort him. Jisung ends up sitting on the floor and Chan crouches near him as they hug. Surprisingly, Felix also walks closer and hesitantly pets Jisung's hair, since he knows Jisung feels comforted by it.

 

"We don't have to do this now Jisungie, you can think about it and tell us later if you want." Chan says, and Jisung nods as he presses his face into Chan's chest.

 

After a little while he calms down and Chan says "you feel better Sungie?" and Jisung nods again.

 

"That’s good" Chan says, and in a spur of the moment decision, kisses Jisung’s nose, making the little giggle, and Chan picks him up and sets him on his feet. The others in the kitchen watch fondly, amazed at how good Chan is at calming little Jisung down.

 

“Ah HA Jisungie! I found you!" Changbin yells as he suddenly bursts into the room

 

"No no Binnie hyung!" Jisung squeals, seeminly forgetting his small breakdown, and he spins around and runs away from the door Changbin is standing in and to the other kitchen door on the opposite side of the kitchen, smacking straight into Hyunjin who just appeared at the other doorway.

 

Hyunjin scoops him up with a triumphant yell and starts carrying him to the living room, yelling about how he “caught the baby” and how that means he's his, as Jisung laughs and Changbin fake complains that he cheated. The others in the kitchen follow them out and watch and Hyunjin half throws Jisung onto the sofa and starts tickling him, making Jisung squeal for help.

 

"I'll save you Jisungie!" Changbin yells and he and Hyunjin start play wrestling. Jeongin, while they're distracted, sneaks around the sofa and starts cuddling Jisung, and when Hyunjin and Changbin notice they say that he cheated but Jeongin says he's innocent.

 

They play for a couple more hours, and eventually in the middle of colouring, Jisung starts yawning and absently chews on his thumb.

 

“I think that it might be time for the baby to go to bed” Woojin comments, amused.

 

Jisung denies it, but doesn't protest when Woojin lifts him up and tells him he has to get ready for sleep.

 

“I’ll get him sorted” Woojin says, but Felix stops him by saying "hold on a minute hyung" and hands him Jisung's pacifier.

 

“Thank you Felix” Woojin says, and puts it in Jisung's mouth before carrying him into the bathroom to clean his teeth.

 

“Well done Felix” Chan praises, and Felix lifts a hand to rub the back of his head.

 

“I’m getting used to it” he admits. “When Jisung regresses again, I'll be better and try to be more involved.”

 

Everyone is proud of him and begins to compliment him and Felix blushes, trying to wave it off.

 

Woojin comes out of the bathroom, Jisung in his arms. Jisung is obviously half asleep at this point, his eyes almost completely shutting immediately when he tries to open them. It’s a very cute sight.

 

"Say goodnight Sungie" Woojin says, and Jisung mumbles a sleepy "g’night hyungs" around his pacifier, making the rest of the band coo as they say goodnight back. Woojin takes Jisung into the room and puts him into bed, Woojin knows big Jisung would not take kindly to him changing his clothes, and so he leaves him in the clothes he’s wearing since they’re comfortable enough to sleep in, he then gives Jisung Bora, the purple (hence the name) rabbit plushie, who Jisung snuggles, and kisses his forehead, making Jisung giggle.

 

“Goodnight hy’ng” Jisung says quietly, already falling asleep.

 

“Sleep well Bug” Woojin says gently before leaving, closing the door gently behind him and walking back in the living room.

 

“He’s down for the night, but be quiet when you head to bed” Woojin says, looking at Felix, Hyunjin and Jeongin.

 

“He’s a really good little” Hyunjin says, and everyone look at him.

 

“What do you mean?” Changbin asks on behalf of everyone else.

 

“Like, he’s not a brat or a troublemaker, at least from what we’ve seen so far.” Hyunjin explains, and everyone agrees.

 

“I hope Jisung won't freak out when he's out of headspace” Felix says, “will he still be little when he wakes up?”

 

“Probably not” Chan says “from what Jisung has said before he probably has only ever been in littlespace for small periods of time while he tried to snap out of it. And he was probably only in headspace for so long this time because he was being taken care of.”

 

Before anyone can say anything, Seungmin comes out with the plates and glasses and pauses in the living room entrance.

 

“Where is Jisung?” he asks.

 

“He’s in bed” Chan says, and Seungmin “ah’s” and goes to the kitchen to put the stuff away. When he comes back he sits in the sofa.

 

“Where’s Minho? Is he coming out?” Woojin asks.

 

“I told him that if I didn't come back then Jisung was not here.” Seungmin explains

 

There’s a moment of silence.

 

“Why did you stay in the bedroom Seungmin?” Chan asks eventually. “Are you that uncomfortable with it?”

 

Seungmin sighs and shifts a little on his seat. “Honestly? I do find the whole little thing weird, but not a lot? I don’t know how I’ll react if I see Jisung in his, uh, headspace but I don’t think I’d be disgusted or anything. But the reason I stayed in the room is mostly because I wanted to keep Minho hyung company since it’s not fair to leave him in a room alone for hours.

 

At his words, the rest of the band feel a little guilty, since they had never considered that, but Seungmin sees it and speaks before they can.

 

“You don’t have to feel guilty” Seungmin says, “Minho hyung chose to stay in the room. I just personally gave up time with Jisung to keep him company. That’s my decision.”

 

The band accept that and start talking about what happened that day, catching Seungmin up with how Jisung acts and what they did with him. Changbin is in the middle of how they were playing hide and seek when Minho suddenly walks into the living room and looks around.

 

“So Jisung is out of headspace I’m guessing?” Minho asks.

 

“No” Chan says, “he’s in bed, but he'll probably wake up out of headspace.”

 

“Good” Minho says and sits down next to Jeongin who scoffs and shuffles away from him, making Minho and the rest of the band surprised because Jeongin had never done something like that before.

 

“Jeongin” Woojin says, voice sharper than normal, “apologise for being so disrespectful”

 

“Sorry hyung” Jeongin says to Minho, but he obviously doesn't mean it.

 

"Is this about Jisung?" Minho asks, but Jeongin doesn't answer, instead he just says he's going to bed and excuses himself. Leaving for his bedroom.

 

“I’ll go make sure he's okay” Felix says and leaves, following the maknae.

 

“What did I do wrong?” Minho asks defensively.

 

“Jeongin loves little Jisung, Minho” Chan explains, calm, “you probably hurt his feelings.”

 

Minho gets a little more defensive “I don't know why he can't just accept that he doesn't want to see Jisung act like a two year old. Ugh. I’m going to bed” He gets up and walks out of the room and shuts the door behind him.

 

Woojin sighs. “I hope this doesn't turn into a big fight. I’m going to bed as well so I don’t wake Minho up later. Goodnight everyone”

 

Everyone says goodnight, and Seungmin says that it's been a long day and that they should probably all go to bed, and Hyunjin agrees, gets up and follows Seungmin into their room with a final goodnight to everyone else.

 

“We should probably go too” Changbin says to Chan.

 

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a couple of minutes” Chan says. “I just want to do some research first”

 

“Are you sure?” Changbin asks, “you really need to sleep more hyung”

 

“I promise I’ll be right there Changbin” Chan says with a smile, and Changbin leaves.

 

It’s about 5 minutes later when Chan gets a message from Hyunjin that says Felix managed to calm Jeongin down and that Jisung is “adorable”. Followed by a picture of Jisung curled on his side with Bora tucked next to his chest and his pacifier in his mouth, sound asleep. Chan coos and sends back a message that that he's happy about Jeongin and that Jisung is indeed very cute, before telling Hyunjin to sleep well.


	5. Supression

The next morning, everyone in the “maknae” room was woken up by the sound of Woojin banging on the door, telling them to get up if they wanna have breakfast, shower and get to practice on time.

 

“Ugh, I really don’t want to get up” Hyunjin complains with a whine, “Felix can you turn the light on?”

 

There’s some low tone grumbling from the other side of the room, but Felix does it anyway, and after a few seconds the light flicks on and Jeongin and Seungmin whine, burying their faces under the covers at the sudden light to stop it from hurting their eyes. Because their faces are covered, they don’t see what Hyunjin and Felix see, and they both look at each other at the same time.

 

“Where’s Jisung?” Hyunjin asks as he gets up, rubbing his eyes.

 

“Probably got up early and is with the hyungs” Seungmin suggests as he sits up and yawns.

 

“It’s not like Jisung to get up early though” Felix says quietly to himself, saying out loud what everyone is thinking.

 

“Who gets to use the shower first?” Jeongin asks as he sticks his face up out from under the covers.

 

“Well we’re going to dance practice so I might just shower after so I don’t have to shower two times” Felix says.

 

“Ew” Seungmin says and Felix mimes hitting him, causing everyone in the room to laugh.

 

A little while later, they all file out of the room, Changbin and Minho are sitting on the living room sofa, looking at something on Changbin’s phone.

 

“Hey hyungs, have you seen Jisung?” Seungmin asks.

 

“No” Changbin responds, “but he might be in the kitchen. Me and Minho just got up and we haven’t been in there yet.”

 

“Chan and Woojin are in the kitchen” Minho agrees, and Hyunjin nods as Jisung goes into the kitchen to check.

 

 Chan and Woojin are talking as they make breakfast when Jeongin enters through the door.

 

“Hey hyungs. Have you seen Jisung?” he asks.

 

Chan and Woojin look at eachother before turning back to the maknae.

 

"He wasn’t in his bed this morning?" Chan asks.

 

"Not when I woke up" Jeongin says, very concerned all of a sudden. And judging from Chan and Woojin’s faces, they’re concerned as well.

 

Chan walks out of the kitchen. “Has anyone seen Jisung?” He asks, and everyone says no, and that they thought that Chan had. “Has he texted anyone?”

 

There’s movement as everyone checks their phones, but the answer is no for everyone again. They all begin murmuring as they get even more concerned. Jisung is not the type to not tell the band if he’s going anywhere. And although not all of them are aware of it, since they’ve seen Jisung in littlespace, they’ve become more protective of him, a little bit more parental almost. Apart from Minho.

 

“Maybe I should call the manager?” Woojin asks, and Chan nods.

 

“Good idea, maybe he’s seen him.”

 

However, as soon as Woojin pulls out his phone, Jisung suddenly walks into the dorm with a gym bag and in his workout clothes, looking tired.

 

"Jisung hyung!" Jeongin shrieks and launches at him, almost knocking him over with a hug.

 

“Hi?” Jisung says surprised, looking a little uncomfortable and goes stiff. Jeongin seems to sense this and moves away, looking at his hyung with a confused expression.

 

Chan comes out of the kitchen at the noise and lightens up when he sees Jisung, moving in for a hug as he asks Jisung where he went. But to everyone’s surprise, Jisung steps out of Chan's grasp after just a couple of seconds, picking up his gym bag, as he had dropped it when Jeongin ran into him.

 

“Sorry hyung, I just needed to clear my head, so I went to go work out for a bit, but I thought I'd be back before everyone woke up.” Jisung says.

 

“Why didn't you answer your phone?” Woojin asks

 

“It's on silent and in my bag” Jisung says, “but I left a note on my nightstand saying that I might be out, which you all uh, obviously must not have seen. I’m… I’m going to go in the shower.”

 

He goes to leave but Chan stops him by gently grabbing his arm as he passes.

 

“Jisung? Are you acting weird this morning because of what happened yesterday?” He asks, and Jisung doesn’t say anything, but he flinches, which is answer enough for everyone.

 

“You know you don’t have to be embarrassed” Chan says, and although his voice is gentle, Jisung gets irritated, taking his arm harshly out of Chan’s grasp as he steps away.

 

“But it _is_ embarrassing hyung!” He snaps, surprising the band since it’s not like Jisung to get angry and snap at anyone. “I never wanted this! I never wanted you to find out, I never wanted to… re-regress in front of any of you.”

 

“But _we_ wanted it” Hyunjin interrupts, and Jisung pauses, confused.

 

“What do you mean?” he asks.

 

“You may not have wanted to be little, but we wanted you to be, we wouldn’t have taken care of you if we didn’t want you to be little.” Hyunjin explains, and Jisung blushes, looking away from everyone.

 

“Not everyone” he says quietly, like he doesn’t want anyone to hear. But they all do, and Minho winces.

 

“Jisung you aren’t a burden or anything” Felix says quietly, and Changbin nods.

 

“Yeah we really liked taking care of you! You’re adorable and we’ll gladly do it again.” Changbin says.

 

Jisung shrinks in on himself, face bright red. “Can I go have a shower now?” He asks, and Chan sighs but says yes, that they can talk about it after breakfast, and Jisung leaves.

 

Jeongin glares at Minho, who notices.

 

“Hey, it isn’t my fault that Jisung feels that way” he says, drawing the rest of the bands attention to them.

 

“Maybe not hyung” Jeongin says, "but it isn't helping either."

 

“Don’t fight you two” Woojin says, “we can talk about this later, civilly,” and he goes to finish making breakfast before it starts burning.

 

Everyone sits around the living room after that for a while, feeling slightly awkward because of the fight before Woojin calls them in for breakfast and they sit down at the table. After a couple of minutes, Jisung comes and joins them, eating in silence, which is very different from normal. No one presses him about it though, not wanting to make him upset again. After they finish, Jisung goes to bolt to his room but Hyunjin grabs his wrist and gently pulls him to the sofa in the living room, making him sit down next to him. Everyone slowly sits down as well after the breakfast stuff is all cleared away.

 

“This feels like an interrogation” Jisung comments dryly once everyone is sat down, and , Hyunjin laughs, making Jisung feel a bit better.

 

“It's not an interrogation.” Chan says, “we're just confused and want to understand. Why are you still embarrassed after all of us said that we don't mind you being little and taking care of you.”

 

There’s a moment of silence before Jisung answers hesitantly, like he doesn’t want to be having this conversation. Which he doesn’t.

 

“It’s just so humiliating” he explains, “my band shouldn’t have to take care of me like I’m a toddler when I’m 17 years old.

 

“Yeah hyung, but in headspace you aren’t 17” Jeongin says, and the band nod in agreement.

 

“Also we specifically asked that you go into littlespace around us, so why would we mind?” Hyunjin asks, and Jisung doesn't have an answer for that.

 

“I didn’t think I would ever slip into headspace around any of you” Jisung admits eventually. “I didn’t even, uh, I didn’t even know I was in headspace until I was, the lack of control was… scary.”

 

Hyunjin and Jeongin look at eachother with a guilty expression.

 

“Uh” Hyunjin says, “me and Jeongin actually tried to get you into headspace since you were feeling little, so it wasn’t because you were weak or anything.”

 

Jisung is surprised, “why?” he asks.

 

“Because we really want to take care of you hyung, what about that is so hard to understand?" Jeongin says and Jisung goes quiet.

 

“"Do you mean that?" Jisung asks eventually, very quietly, and everyone in the band besides Minho is quick to reassure him that they don't mind, making Jisung blush, but smile and say "thank you"

 

“Does that mean you’ll trust us enough to go into headspace more often?” Changbin asks. and Jisung takes a minute, looking deep in thought. He then breathes deeply.

 

“If none of you mind” he says, and everyone is quick to reassure him again. Jisung is read the whole time, but he looks more comfortable than he did before.

 

“Okay okay” Chan says after a little while, interrupting everyone talking and telling Jisung that they don’t mind, and everyone turns to him. “If you’re going to go into littlespace around us then we’re going to need to know some stuff.”

 

Jisung takes another deep breath, says okay. Hyunjin takes his hand and gives it a quick squeeze to reassure him, and Jisung gives him a small smile of thanks.

 

“Typically, how often do you go into littlespace?” Chan asks.

 

“Not often” Jisung says, "it's usually just when I'm stressed, but I've suppressed it for so long now that I don't know my natural littlespace, but it shouldn't be anything more than that. I know some other littles regress more often, like twice a week or something, but I don’t, I only get the urge to slip when my… uh, I guess my brain? Doesn’t want to deal with a large amount of stress anymore."

 

“So you get stressed for like, comebacks and stuff?” Felix asks.

 

“Yeah” Jisung says, confused, before realising why Felix asked that. He blushes.

 

“How well can you uh, control it?” Woojin asks, and the whole group looks at him curiously. “You know, in case we’re in a situation where we are not alone or something but you can’t help it kind of thing.”

 

Jisung looks down at his hand, the one on his lap that is not holding Hyunjin’s. “Not that well to be honest hyung. Because my headspace is caused from trauma, it’s not just a casual way to destress, it’s more of a coping mechanism for my brain. Most of the time I don’t even realise I’m slipping until right before I do, if at all… like uh, like last time.”

 

“But then what if you suddenly want to regress at a show or something?” Changbin asks, though he gets concerned and backpedals when he sees Jisung’s face show fear. “I don’t mean that we would be mad or anything! It’s just so we know what to do.” he explains, and Jisung looks a little less scared.

 

“I… I dunno…” Jisung says quietly, “I know that even if I’m stressed, if I’ve already been little I can control it a little better, but I haven’t really had enough experience with caregivers or anything to say for sure.”

 

There’s some silence before Woojin looks up from where he had been looking at his feet.

 

“W-Would it then maybe be a good idea for you to go into littlespace a couple of days before an event? Because that way you’ll have more control, and we don't risk you slipping into headspace in the middle of a fan sign because a fan gave you a stuffed toy or something.” Although his words are a little harsh, his soothing tone is enough to show Jisung that his hyung is just concerned. Jisung blushes and agrees hesitantly, though he looks a little uncomfortable.

 

“I’ll talk to the manager about getting a day off a couple of days before something as part of our schedule, the day before we’ll probably be too busy.” The rest of the band nod in agreement. “Anyway, we should probably head down to practice now.” More agreement, and everyone gets up and heads off to get ready, but Jeongin stays with Jisung on the sofa.

 

“Thank you for trusting us hyung” Jeongin says, shyly, and Jisung smiles at how caring the maknae is.

 

“Thank you for accepting me” Jisung responds, and pulls Jeongin in for a hug.


	6. Succession

Despite the big talk the whole band had, nothing really happens for the next 2 months, like Jisung said, he doesn’t regress very often, and although they have busy schedules, it’s not super stressful, more like an consistent level of stress. Every so often a member will ask him if he feels close to regressing, and after thinking about it, he’ll say “no”, being completely honest. However, after 2 months, the band has a stage performance coming up, and a few days before the performance, Chan approaches Jisung and says that he probably should go into littlespace before the event.

 

Jisung is embarrassed but agrees, “yeah hyung that sounds like a good idea, thanks.”

 

Chan smiles and ruffles Jisung’s hair, obviously happy that Jisung is more willing to agree to being in headspace around them.

 

“I know we have the performance soon, but I would have suggested that you go into headspace soon anyway, you’ve been biting your thumb for the past 2 days.”

 

Jisung realises that he has in fact been doing that and gets flustered, making Chan laugh.

 

-o-

 

They’re in dance practice and having a break when Felix waves to get Jisung’s attention, he seems a little wary, and it has Jisung getting a little wary in response.

 

“Hey, you’re doing the thumb thing” Felix says, and Jisung realises he's been rubbing his thumb over his lip for a little while.

 

He realises that the reason Felix is wary is because the last time he did “the thumb thing” in dance practice, he ran out. Jisung looks around the dance practice room and realises that everyone is looking at him the same way, like they’re expecting him to bolt again. But he doesn’t, and everyone relaxes.

 

-o-

 

The next day, Jisung is woken up by Hyunjin gently shaking him. He hadn’t slept that well last night, being unable to get comfortable, and he grumbles and tells him to go away. Hyunjin laughs at the response, and Jisung feels Hyunjin slowly start to pet his hair. He likes it and relaxes into the touch, but is confused why Hyunjin is doing it.

 

“You need to get up Jisungie" Hyunjin says, and his voice sounds odd.

 

It takes Jisung an embarrassing amount of time to remember that today is the day the band have planned for him to be little, and he gets embarrassed. He tries to bury his head further into his covers.

 

“I don’t want to be little Hyunjin” Jisung says quietly, and Hyunjin is sympathetic.

 

Hyunjin doesn’t say anything, but he does pull back the covers and pulls Jisung into a carrying hold. Jisung tries to ignore the way how he instinctively wants to curl into Hyunjin’s chest and go to sleep.  He also ignores how he almost whines when Hyunjin puts him down. Hyunjin walks around the room for a little and opens the wardrobe, pulling out some clothes, but then he hesitates and puts them back, instead pulling out just a pair of Jisung’s underwear and a towel and going back towards Jisung to give him the items.

 

“The shower is ready for you, I’ll be here when you get out.”

 

Jisung nods and leaves for the shower. Since there’s only one ensuite in the maknae room, they often fight over the shower in the morning, but no one else seems to be in the room or wanting to use it, and Jisung enjoys the warm water. He gets out once he’s washed and changes into the underwear, draping the towel around his shoulders as he walks out and back into the room. Hyunjin is waiting for him when he gets there, on his phone and interacting with some posts on their social media and stuff.

 

Hyunjin looks up as Jisung enters, he looks fine, but he hasn’t dried off his hair properly, and Hyunjin wonders if that’s because he’s losing some motor control as he slips into headspace. He gets up and grabs the towel, using it to finish off drying Jisung’s hair, and once he’s done with that, helps Jisung gets dressed. Like last time, he puts Jisung in one of his sweaters, since they’re too big for Jisung, and also comfortable, and a pair of sweatpants. Jisung can feel himself slipping but he's honestly just too tired to do much about it.

 

Hyunjin continues to talk soothingly to him and Jisung yawns, absently biting the sleeve of the sweater. When Hyunjin realises, he gently takes it away from his mouth and replaces it with the pacifier, which he must have picked up when Jisung was in the shower. Jisung blushes bright red, now very embarrassed, and goes to take it out as a first instinct, but before he can, he suddenly slips completely into littlespace and his hand freezes around the handle. Hyunjin is watching him warily but smiles when Jisung’s hand drops and he hums and starts sucking on it.

 

“"Heya Bug, you wanna go see your hyungs?” Hyunjin asks, and Jisung blinks sleepily.

 

“"Okay Jinnie hyung" he says after a little while, and makes grabby hands to be picked up, which Hyunjin does.

 

Jisung tucks his head into Hyunjin’s shoulder, enjoying how warm and safe-feeling his hyung’s arms are. Hyunjin carries him out of the room and into the living room where everyone is already awake and chatting, even Seungmin, Minho isn't there though. Woojin sees them first and smiles as they enter when he sees Jisung.

 

"I'm guessing you did it then?" He asks, making everyone also turn and see them.

 

"Of course I did, I'm amazing, that’s 2 for 2.” Hyunjin says with a grin, “he's very sleepy though."

 

The band coo, and Hyunjin sits down with Jisung in his lap and Jisung curls up on his chest, trying to go back to sleep.

 

“How was it then?” Chan asks.

 

“It was fine” Hyunjin responds, “he went to pull the pacifier out of his mouth when I put it in, but must have slipped into littlespace before he could.”

 

Seungmin is looking at Jisung curiously and Changbin says he can go introduce himself if he wants since little Jisung hasn’t technically met him yet. Seungmin is obviously unsure but Felix coaxes him, says that he wasn’t sure at first either, but it's fine. Seungmin shuffles closer and shyly says hi.

 

Jisung blinks at him. "Hi Minnie hyung" he says before settling back down.

 

“"So he's like, a little kid?" Seungmin asks, slightly awed, and Hyunjin says yes, amused.

 

“Wow” Seungmin says, making some of the other members laugh.

 

Jisung can distantly hear them talking and Woojin says "should we make him eat breakfast or let him sleep and feed him later?"

 

“We can probably just give him a snack now and then he can have lunch later when he's more awake.” Chan says.

 

“I’ll go get some fruit” Jeongin says and leaves, going into the kitchen. He comes back with an orange and starts peeling it, getting rid of as much of the pith as he can. Hyunjin bounces Jisung slightly to keep him awake and Jisung whines, displeased, making the band laugh. Felix takes the other half of the orange and starts helping Jeongin peel it.

 

Jeongin finishes peeling some of the orange and gives a segment to Hyunjin, who looks at Jisung.

 

“Hey Bug, can you take your pacifier out for Jinnie hyung?" Hyunjin says, and Jisung shakes his head.

 

“Please?” Hyunjin tries again, “you can have it back soon okay?”

 

Jisung doesn’t do anything for a moment, but then slowly nods his head, and Hyunjin carefully takes out the pacifier and puts it on the stand next to the sofa and feeds Jisung the orange slice. Jisung makes a face at the citric acid taste but ultimately likes it and continues to nibble on it until it’s gone as the band talk about the approaching stage show and what exercises and practice they'll go through tomorrow.

 

Jisung gets through half the orange before deciding he doesn't want any more and so Hyunjin gives him his pacifier back and he curls up and tries to go to sleep again. Jeongin and Felix begin to eat the rest of the orange as they listen to Chan talk about the schedule, passing a segment to Changbin when he asks for one.

 

Jisung can hear them talking about what they plan to do later, but their voices become quieter and quieter until eventually stopping as he drifts off to sleep.


	7. Aggression

Jisung wakes up a couple of hours later at about half 11 on Chan's chest, who has one hand petting his hair and the other typing something on his phone. Everyone besides Minho are talking and also on their phones, but turn and look when Jisung starts wiggling, making noise and whining, wanting down, surprising Chan.

 

“Did you sleep well Sungie?” Chan asks, but Jisung doesn’t answer and continues to wiggle.

 

"Channie hyung! Down" Jisung says around his pacifier, and Chan laughs and sets him on the floor.

 

“Okay okay Bug, you want your colouring book?”

 

“No” Jisung says, and huffs, pulling out his pacifier and setting it down.

 

“Is he mad?” Changbin asks, sounding a little concerned, and Chan shakes his head with a smile.

 

“He's probably just a little cranky since he just woke up” Chan says, and Changbin laughs before saying that he has an idea and getting up and going to his room.

 

Jisung pulls at the hem of the sweater, seeming frustrated, but it doesn’t seem like he’s slipping out of headspace, more that he’s just uncomfortable or bored or something.

 

“What’s wrong Sungie?” Hyunjin asks, leaning forward on the sofa so that he can see him better.

 

“Dunno” Jisung says quietly, he looks like he is about to say something else but it turns into a sneeze, surprising Jisung, and making all of the band laugh at the cuteness.

 

Changbin comes back into the room and looks at everyone laughing.

 

“Hey why are you all laughing? Did I miss something?” He asks, and Seungmin turns to look at him.

 

“Jisung just sneezed and surprised himself” Seungmin explains, and Changbin laughs fondly, “I brought a deck of cards, I think he’s bored and doesn’t know what to do. Hey Jisungie? You wanna learn how to play snap?” He asks.

 

Immediately Jisung loses the sad look he had and perks up considerably, clapping his hands.

 

“"Yes please Binnie hyung!" he says, and Changbin sits down beside him. Seungmin, Felix and Jeongin join them as well so that they’re all sat in a circle. Changbin starts teaching Jisung how to play snap as Chan, Hyunjin and Woojin all head into the kitchen to make lunch.

 

Jisung has fun playing snap and the boys let him win a few times since his reaction times are now slower. Plus, he’s really cute when he gets all excited and hits the floor while yelling ‘snap!’ as loud as he can, which is pretty loud, but not so loud that it’s annoying.

 

During the end of the 6th game, Hyunjin and Felix suddenly both yell “snap!” at the same time and go to slap the cards on the floor. Seungmin, Changbin and Jisung all roar with laughter though when instead of hitting the cards, Hyunjin is too slow and ends up smacking Felix's hand, who fake-screams and rolls around on the floor dramatically, complaining that he's dying before lying down still and sticking his tongue out the side of his mouth.

 

“You’re so dumb” Seungmin says, amused.

 

“Can't hear you I'm dead" Felix says, making Jisung giggle.

 

“Oh no!” Changbin says loudly, “Jisungie! We’re going to have to resurrect him! Come here! I’ll teach you how to perform CPR!”

 

Jisung laughs and shuffles over, watching as Changbin puts his hands over Felix’s chest and pressing down a few times. Felix makes tiny grunting sounds every time but doesn’t open his eyes or put his tongue back in his mouth. Changbin stops and gestures for Jisung to try, who puts his hands up and pushes them down, not super hard, but definitely harder than Changbin did, and he misses his target and doesn’t hit Felix’s chest, hitting his stomach instead.

 

Felix goes " _guh_!" and curls over himself, arms protecting his stomach, but he’s not hurt.

 

"Yay! You did it Jisungie!" Changbin says and Jisung claps, pleased, telling Changbin about how he saved Felix.

 

“Oh noooooo! I came back as a zombie!” Felix yells suddenly and sits up, grabbing Jisung and pretending to eat his brain and making Jisung squeal as he calls for help.

 

Jeongin "saves" Jisung by grabbing him and kind of rolling him and Jisung so that Jisung is sitting on his lap, making everyone laugh as Jeongin proclaims his victory.

 

They’re being so loud that they all don’t notice when Chan walks out of the kitchen and sees them, not until he suddenly bends down and picks Jisung up.

 

“Lunchtime guys, you can play afterwards okay?” Chan says as he starts walking towards the kitchen, on the way, Jisung babbles to Chan about how Felix died and came back as a zombie and Jeongin saved him and Chan entertains him by oohing and ahhing fondly. He sits Jisung down at the table and sits next to him as everyone else comes in and sits down, Hyunjin sitting down on Jisung’s other side.

 

“Do you want me to feed him hyung?” Hyunjin offers.

 

“No it’s okay I got it” Chan says and Hyunjin says okay and goes to his food.

 

Since Jisung didn't really enjoy the gimbap rolls last time, Woojin and Chan made some bindae-tteok and Jisung seems to like them more and is pretty happy when he's eating. He’ll pick them up with his hands sometimes, but other times Chan will use his chopsticks to feed him since it’s less messy. Woojin has also filled up the sippy-cup with some orange juice and Jisung drinks from it occasionally.

 

While having lunch Woojin asks if there's anything Jisung wants to do and Jisung says "watch movie!"

 

“Oh? What movie?” Woojin asks, and Jisung says he doesn't know.

 

“What about My Neighbour Totoro?” Felix suggests, “I really liked that movie as a kid.” The rest of the band agree, and talk about the Korean dub of the movie.

 

After lunch they clear up before moving into the living room and putting the movie on. Everyone sits on the sofas, and Jisung sits in front of the sofa watching the opening, amazed, Bora tucked against his chest. Ten minutes of the way through the movie however, Jisung starts biting his sleeve absentmindedly, gnawing the material between his teeth. This continues for a while, but after a little while he’s suddenly picked up from behind and put onto Woojin's lap. He grumbles a little as Woojin removes the sleeve from his mouth and replaces it with the pacifier but settles down fairly quickly afterwards and continues watching.

 

Halfway through the movie Changbin and Jeongin leave and go to the store and come back with popcorn, which they heat up in the microwave and pass it around in bowls. Jisung looks up for a moment at the smell but doesn’t ask for any, too invested in the movie and the bathhouse spirit in it. Woojin takes some of the popcorn from one of the bowls as it’s passed to him, eating some, and Jisung jumps, surprised when Woojin slowly removes his pacifier and puts one of the kernels in his mouth. Jisung eats it and really likes it so Woojin gives him a few more before Jisung settles down to watch the movie again and Woojin gives him his pacifier back.

 

The movie ends and everyone takes a moment to stretch and relax since they're all really content and kind of lethargic from sitting still for so long, talking a little about the movie and what happened in it.

 

“We have 5 hours to kill before we should start making dinner” Chan comments, and Jisung asks for his colouring book, which Jeongin goes and gets him. Woojin puts him on the floor and Jisung spends some time colouring in while the band chill out on the sofas and talk.

 

After an hour Jisung seems to get bored and says he wants to do something else, but no one really knows what to do.

 

“What about we play Pictionary?” Jeongin says, and Jisung gets excited about it and agrees.

 

“I’ll get a list of suggestions open on my phone” Chan says, and they split into two teams. Hyunjin, Jisung, Woojin and Seungmin VS Chan, Jeongin, Felix and Changbin. Seungmin grabs a stand-up whiteboard from their storage and even manages to find some pens, 2 are almost dead so they use the last one, which works fine.

 

They end up playing for two hours, and it’s a lot of fun. But the funniest thing that happens is when Changbin draws clues for the movie ‘Oldboy’ but no one gets it and he insists that it’s obvious, getting more and more heated, making everyone laugh harder and harder as he and Seungmin playfully argue about his drawing quality. After that they start playing again, throwing in some simpler ones for Jisung, though the little doesn’t even seem to mind that he doesn’t get half the pictures, he’s just having fun watching everyone else grow more and more excited as they try to guess. Eventually the game stops when they run out of prompts they can use, and they sit around trying to catch their breath.

 

“What does everyone want for dinner?” Woojin asks, “I need to know if I need to go shopping for anything.”

 

“Takeout?” Changbin asks.

 

“We’ve already had popcorn” Chan says, “we can get takeout after the show if you still want it then.”

 

“What about bibimbap, rice and kimchi?” Hyunjin suggests and everyone is in agreement, meaning that Woojin has to go shopping.

 

“You can take Minho with you” Chan says.

 

“Jeongin should go because he's the maknae” Hyunjin says, which annoys Jeongin a little.

 

“You can't keep using that excuse hyung” Jeongin complains.

 

In retaliation, Chan makes Hyunjin go, and Jeongin laughs really hard, Hyunjin grumbles but complies and goes to get Minho. Chan kneels next to Jisung who's playing a game on Felix's phone, who looks up at Chan.

“Hyungie?” He asks, and Chan smiles at him.

 

“Hey Bug, when Minho hyung comes out, can you keep looking at the phone and not at Minho hyung okay?” Chan asks, and Jisung agrees, obviously sad, Chan apologises and ruffles his hair before getting up and walking to the kitchen to clear some space.

 

After a little bit, Hyunjin and Minho come out and it’s a little tense, but Jisung keeps looking at the phone until they get ready and leave. Once the door closes behind them there’s a moment of quiet before Jisung starts sniffing (crying), and Jeongin immediately rushes over to comfort him.

 

“No no don’t cry Sungie, it’s okay, it’s fine! Minho hyung still likes you. He’s just being a really dumb person at the moment.” Jeongin says lowly, and Jisung nods, but he's still got his head down and wipes his eyes with his sleeve.

 

“You wanna play some more Sungie?” Changbin asks, coming closer.

 

“No” Jisung says, and makes grabby hands at Jeongin who immediately picks him up and sits on the sofa with him. Jisung curls into him but doesn't fall asleep, and Jeongin keeps reassuring him.

 

The rest of the band gets sad at the situation and begin to clear away the Pictionary stuff, Chan gives Jeongin Jisung's pacifier who offers it to Jisung but Jisung refuses, turning his head away. Jeongin’s face falls a bit but he puts it down and simply holds Jisung as he lies there. Then after a few minutes, Jisung gets up and walks into his room, coming out in a hoodie and some jeans before sitting on the sofa and pulling out his phone.

 

“Are you okay Jisung?” Chan asks.

 

"I'm fine hyung, just didn't feel little anymore. Don't worry, I'm not going to freak out." Jisung says.

 

Jeongin is clearly sad, so is everyone else there, but they continue as if nothing is wrong.

 

 Jisung and Felix end up talking about the stage show and how excited yet nervous they are for it. The rest of the band eventually join the conversation and talk about how they're excited to see the fans and perform and stuff. Tomorrow they have to have a stage rehearsal and they're talking about outfits when the others arrive.

 

Hyunjin sees Jisung and goes "Oh! You left headspace?"

 

“Yeah” Jisung says, looking up from where he had been looking at outfits they would want to wear on his phone.

 

“So you're back?" Minho asks, and before Jisung can respond, Jeongin says "he never left" and everyone is shocked at the harsh outburst from their usually very nice maknae.

 

“What do you even mean by that?” Minho asks

 

"You know exactly what I mean hyung." Jeongin says angrily.

 

“Alright, can both of you stop fighting for a second please?” Chan asks, trying to stop the argument, but Minho keeps going.

 

"I don't know why you're so upset about this. I thought we had talked about it. I just don't want to see Jisung in his littlespace." Minho snaps, and something changes.

 

“And what about me hyung?!” Jeongin explodes, fully yelling now. “What if I was being abused, what if it was Chan hyung, or Felix hyung, or Seungmin hyung. What if you found out we were being beaten, that to cope we would have to act like a five year old every now and then. What would you do then!? Would you just not care!?" He starts crying halfway through and his voice breaks on the last word.

 

"Of course I would care Jeong-" Minho says, but Jeongin interrupts him.

 

“ _Then show it!”_ Jeongin yells, and storms off into his room.


	8. Discussion

Everyone is silent for a while before Jisung gets up and follows Jeongin out of the room without saying anything, entering their bedroom after the maknae and closing the door behind them. Minho stands there shaken, eyes wide and mouth open.

 

“I’ll go talk to Jeongin” Woojin says after a little while, “get him to apologise.”

 

He goes to follow Jisung an Jeongin into the bedroom but Minho stops him by grabbing his shoulder.

 

“No hyung, don’t bother. He’s… He’s right” Minho says slowly before walking down the corridor into his room, shutting the door behind him. Everyone looks at eachother for a bit before Felix nods in the direction of the room Minho went into.

 

“I’ll go” he says and follows Minho into the room, closing the door behind him and watching as his hyung slumps onto the bed, looking tired. Felix sits down next to him and after a couple of minutes, Minho presses against him for comfort.

 

“So what was that all about?” Felix asks gently when Minho seems to have calmed down a bit. “And are you okay?”

 

“I never wanted to hurt Jisung” Minho says quietly, not answering either of Felix’s questions. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

 

Felix hums but doesn’t press, waiting for Minho to keep talking.

 

"How were people who were... not straight treated in Australia?" Minho suddenly asks and Felix is confused.

 

"Much better than in Korea not going to lie. You'd see gay couples a bit. And more people were willing to tell you they were gay than here ever will. Why?" Felix says. He pauses, "Minho hyung are you-"

 

Minho finishes Felix’s question by saying "gay" softly before he nods and starts crying.

 

Felix immediately hugs him, and Minho wraps his arms around him in return as he cries.

 

“It’s okay hyung” Felix says gently. “I’m not going to judge you for it, I’m not straight either.” Minho tilts his head and Felix continues. “I’m bisexual, I just prefer girls.”

 

“How do you deal with living in a culture where no one will accept you?” Minho asks.

 

Felix shrugs. “It doesn’t stop me from being who I am, they can hate me all they want but I’m still not going to change, so it’s pointless worrying about it too much.” He pauses for a second. “But what does any of this have to do with Jisung though hyung?”

 

“I…” Minho says, “I have a c-crush on Jisung, but Jisung is straight and I know that we'll never be together. But it’s so hard to get over. I don’t want to see Jisung act like a little child because that’s so weird to me, you know? He’s my crush, but he acts like a toddler and… ugh, it’s hard to explain.”

 

Felix is surprised, but smiles gently. “Yeah I get that, and, well… if it makes you feel any better. I had a crush on Changbin for a long time"

 

Minho is shocked before saying "had?" and Felix says he got over it. Minho asks how.

 

"Because I realised that it wasn't fair, to me, or to him, because he's straight. And that even if he were gay and liked me back we would never be able to be together the way I want to be. I had to chose being an idol over my feelings. But I look back and I am glad that I lost my crush on him. Because I still get Changbin as a best friend, and that's more than good enough for me." Felix says.

 

“Woah” Minho says, in awe and shock, and Felix blushes.

 

“Do you think you could ever get over Jisung, hyung?”

 

Minho looks at him. "I think so"

 

Felix smiles and hugs him and Minho hugs back.

 

“You know, I’m worried that if I see Jisung in littlespace I won’t be attracted to him anymore… because that’s kind of weird.”

 

Felix hmmns.  “Well, I think you had better talk to Jisung before you lose him as a best friend too”, and Minho agrees and they leave the room.

 

Everyone looks up when they enter and the atmosphere is very tense. Though it gets better when they all realise how Felix and Minho are more relaxed and Felix is smiling.

 

“Are you okay Minho?” Chan asks.

 

“Better than before thanks to Felix" Minho says, and Felix gets bashful and blushes. “Have they come out of the room yet?”

 

Chan says no. And Felix wishes Minho luck before gently pushing him towards the door. Minho knocks on the bedroom door and asks if he can come in, for a moment there is no noise, but then he hears someone say ‘yes’ and pushes open the door and closes it behind him. Jisung and Jeongin are sitting on the bed, and they both look at him as he walks in.

 

“Um, can I talk to Jisung in private please?” Minho asks Jeongin. Jeongin seems reluctant but Jisung says he'll be fine and Jeongin leaves.

 

There's a bit of awkward silence before Minho goes "I'm really sorry"

 

“You have nothing to be sorry for hyung. I understand." Jisung says

 

“No you don't.” Minho says firmly, “It's more complicated than that."

 

Jisung seems confused and curious, and invites Minho to come sit on the bed, which he does. Jisung waits until he is sat down before saying "then tell me hyung. What’s wrong?"

 

"I can't tell you everything. But just know that I have been going through some stuff lately and I've been taking it out on you, unfairly. I really do care about you though, and I'm so sorry for being a complete jerk." Minho says quietly, not able to meet Jisung’s eyes.

 

“It’s fine hyung” Jisung says. “Even if it had just been a case of you finding my littlespace too weird to deal with, I would have understood and not blamed you for it. I… I hope you will be able to tell me the rest one day, but for now? I understand, and it’s fine. I forgive you.”

 

“Is. Is it too late?” Minho asks.

 

“For what hyung?” Jisung asks, confused.

 

“Is it too late to become one of your caregivers?” Minho continues, and Jisung is shocked.

 

“W-what?” Jisung stutters. “Are you sure hyung? I know how you feel, and you really don’t have to, I won’t get upset anymore.”

 

“You're my best friend Jisung. I don't want to lose you. And this is a part of who you are, which means that I have to accept it, and I want to" Minho says and gives Jisung a hug. Jisung laughs and says they should go out before anyone breaks down the door or starts to worry, and Minho agrees and they get up to leave.

 

“Oh, before we go out there” Jisung says. “If you’re really sure about this, then it’s not too late”

 

Minho smiles and grabs his hand, “thank you Jisung” he says, and they walk out the room and back into the living room.

 

Everyone looks up at them, and relax when they see their linked hands.

 

“Is everything alright now?” Chan asks, and they say yes at the same time, which makes the rest of the band cheer, happy that the fighting seems to be over. Jeongin comes forward towards them slowly, looking at the ground as he talks.

 

“I’m sorry Minho hyung, I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that”

 

“It’s fine Jeongin, I understand, and we’re okay now.”

 

Jeongin smiles and gives Minho a hug, which he returns.

 

“Well I’m starving” Hyunjin says with his arm looped around Seungmin’s shoulders, “can we please make dinner now?”

 

Everyone laughs and agrees, and instead of just Chan and Woojin making the meal, everyone heads to the kitchen to help prepare the dinner. There’s a lot of laughing and smiles as they work, like the fighting didn’t even happen, and things feel good again.


	9. Conclusion

It's been a couple of weeks since the blow-out with Minho and Jeongin, and it's finally time for Jisung to go into littlespace again. The band had discussed it last night since they have a showcase coming up, and since the managers had allowed them to have a day off 2 days before an event like Chan had asked.

 

The band is sitting in the living room talking, everyone is there besides Jisung, who is asleep in bed. He always sleeps more when he’s close to littlespace. The day before, the band had talked about Jisung going into littlespace to get rid of his stress. Jisung had blushed the whole time, but he hadn’t said no, and had even agreed it would be a good idea, and that he needed it. It was a big step for him.

 

“I’ll go wake him up” Chan says after looking at his clock.

 

“How are you going to get him into littlespace hyung?” Minho asks. Since he had accepted being one of Jisung’s caregivers, he had obviously made an effort to ask more questions about Jisung and his headspace, it was a nice thing.

 

“You basically just have to baby him a bit is all” Hyunjin explains, “dress him and stuff, like a kid.”

 

“I want to help” Minho says, looking at Chan, who had gotten up to move to Jisung’s room.

 

“As much as I know you want to redeem yourself hyung” Changbin says, “seeing you might make Jisung not want to go into littlespace because little Jisung thinks you don’t like him.”

 

Minho’s face falls and Seungmin reaches over to pat his back.

 

“Well you will have today to change that opinion” Chan says gently, and Minho nods, suddenly determined. Chan leaves the room after that and enters the maknae room to wake Jisung up, closing the door behind him.

 

While he’s gone, Woojin talks about the plan for today, which is basically just to relax and take care of Jisung, and that depending on what age Jisung goes, he can help make something simple for dinner, which everyone seems excited by. But they’re interrupted when they hear Jisung shriek, and suddenly Chan enters the room with an armful of squirming Jisung. Jisung’s smile is wide and his cheeks are flushed.

 

“He’s apparently in a playful mood today” Chan says as he sets Jisung down and watches as Jisung runs away and hides behind the sofa behind Felix and Changbin, who turn around so they can look at him fondly.

 

“How easy was it?” Seungmin asks.

 

Chan shrugs and goes "pretty easy, it didn't take much. Probably a combination of him needing to be little and feeling more comfortable being little around us."

 

“Hey Jisungie? You want some breakfast?” Woojin asks.

 

Jisung pops up from where he is hiding behind the sofa and yells "yes please Woojinnie hyung!"

 

“He seems a bit older this time” Hyunjin says, and Felix nods.

 

“Yeah, around 6 maybe?” Felix says and gets some agreement from everyone else.

 

While Jisung is distracted, Changbin puts an arm over the couch and tickles him, making Jisung screech and try to smack his hand away. When Jisung actually manages to hit one of Changbin’s hands, Changbin playfully pretends he's really hurt, but unlike littler Jisung might have, Jisung doesn’t think his hyung is being serious and he runs around the front of the couch and jump into Changbin’s lap as he apologises while laughing. Felix moves away a bit so they have more room as Changbin starts tickling Jisung’s stomach and Jisung squeals again and gets revenge by clamping his arms around Changbin's neck in a weird hug-grasp.

 

When they calm down, Hyunjin goes over and kneels in front of the sofa where Changbin, Jisung and Felix are sitting.

 

“Hey Bug, do you want to meet your other hyung?”

 

Jisung is obviously confused and looks around the room. He had been so distracted he hadn’t seen everyone in the room, and when he sees Minho he ducks his head and tries to hide his face in Changbin's chest. Minho lets himself feel guilty since he deserved that.

 

“Hey it’s okay Sungie” Jeongin says immediately, getting up and moving closer to Jisung. “Nothing bad is going to happen alright?” He reassures.

 

Changbin moves his arms to let Jeongin pick Jisung up and set him on the floor, giving him a little push to go towards Minho, but Jisung grabs Jeongin’s hand and so Jeongin obliges and goes along as well. When they get there, Jisung looks at his feet as he shifts them back and forth.

 

"Heya Jisungie, remember this hyung?" Minho asks and Jisung nods.

 

Minho gets off of the sofa and stands up. “I’m sorry I didn’t spend time with you before Jisung… ie. I’ll never do that again.”

 

For a moment everyone worries that Jisung isn’t going to do anything. But then he finally looks up with big eyes.

 

“Promise?” Jisung asks softly.

 

“Promise” Minho says with a smile.

 

Jisung holds out a pinky finger and Minho laughs, shaking it with his own pinky finger, and Jisung smiles at him. The band all sigh in relief, happy that everything seems to be going well.

 

“Hey Sungie? Want to watch me make breakfast?” Woojin asks. “You can help out if you’re good.” He usually wouldn’t let Jisung in the kitchen while cooking when little, but he seems old enough now to avoid any disasters.

 

“Yes yes yes yes yes yes! Please hyung! Thank you Woojinnie hyung!” Jisung babbles as he bounces around. Woojin laughs and picks him up, says he can sit on the bench as long as he doesn't move around too much and Jisung nods with a forced serious expression which is adorable to see. They go into the kitchen and a lot of the band follow, either to continue talking or to watch Jisung and make sure nothing bad happens. Before Minho can follow, Felix catches him by grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to stop.

 

“You okay?” Felix asks, “about all of this?”

 

“He's cuter than I thought. I thought it would be more like him pretending to be small." Minho admits.

 

“Yeah I thought the same” Felix says, “I now know that it's less like he's pretending to be a little kid, and more like he's a little kid in a large body.” Minho nods in agreement.

 

“Also, are you okay? From the stuff we talked about before?” Felix asks.

 

Minho takes a breath.

 

“Yes. I’m not over him yet, but I’ll get there.”

 

Smiling, Felix tells him congratulations, and asks if he wants to go watch with everyone else in the kitchen, and Minho says yes, smiling back.

 

When they walk into the kitchen they see Jisung sitting on the counter bench and handing Woojin the packets of rice he needs as everyone stands or sits around and chats happily about the showcase. Felix is immediately pulled into a conversation with Jeongin and Seungmin about the choreography, Chan, Changbin and Hyunjin occasionally chime in as well from where they are standing drinking some coffee.

 

Minho thinks that their odd, large family will be just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's the end! i can't believe it's finally over haha!
> 
> thank you so much everyone for sticking with me for this whole fic, it was only my fifth fic that i wrote in english, and the first fic i publishes on archive of our own. it also would have been no where near as good without my english friend and beta jewel! she said it's okay for me to use her name haha, so everyone thank jewel down in the reviews!
> 
>  
> 
> i'm thinking of making this fic into a small series? i enjoy writing it and it's good practice for me to write in english. if you have any ideas for future stories that i will add as part of a series then let me know in the reviews. meanwhile i have come up with some in case you are stuck and cannot think of any.
> 
>  
> 
> \- jisung regresses way further than usual (baby to toddler)   
> \- jisung regresses without stray kids around to help him.   
> \- or anything you guys want to see haha you don't have to pick either of these
> 
> i'm going on for ages now so i will wrap it up now! thank you all so much for reading and i hope you stick around for the sequels and more of little!jisung!

**Author's Note:**

> okay, so not gonna lie, i'm new to this whole ageplay thing. i used to hate ageplay fics because i didn't know they could be non-sexual, but upon reading "Snips and Snails And Puppy Dogs' Tails" by "Wheres_my_badger" - another little!Jisung fic, i realised that i was missing out and decided to try my own.
> 
> hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review and tell me what you think x


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